[pacman128]

I was also lost for a while working on my physics Ph.D. The course work ended with the state of physics in 1930 (this was the late 80's). I was also trying to do Lattice Gauge theory which involves many different areas: statistical mechanics, high energy, ... I really struggled trying to get up to speed on these.

My wife was finishing her finance doctorate so I had a deadline. I had already worked on some statistical mechanics projects and had the idea of downsizing and just expand on them. After this decision, I was done in a year (and before my wife was finished).

As the essay shows, it is very easy to get lost working on a physics Ph.D. After getting my degree, I ending up teaching CS for ten years before getting into software development. While it was stressful at times, I don't regret my physics education. I learned a lot (sometimes by being thrown into the deep end).