Yah. Well, for most of us, the prospect of making a significant contribution to the sum of human knowledge is a faint prospect.
They say all political careers end in failure. Very few politicians die in the saddle, or simply retire. Most of them are destroyed. My guess is that most careers in science research end similarly; lots of career-length research projects fail to achieve their goals, and very few scientists get Nobels for world-changing discoveries.
> for most of us, the prospect of making a significant contribution to the sum of human knowledge is a faint prospect
Physicists are bright people with other options. They forewent those other options to have an increased chance at contributing to human understanding. I can empathize with the greater tragedy of their failure than that of e.g. a millionaire adtech founder.
They say all political careers end in failure. Very few politicians die in the saddle, or simply retire. Most of them are destroyed. My guess is that most careers in science research end similarly; lots of career-length research projects fail to achieve their goals, and very few scientists get Nobels for world-changing discoveries.