So, back in July I took the plunge and decided that I wasn't cut out for the world of Academia. Grad school was taking an emotional toll that was turning into a physical toll and wasn't paying the fulfillment dividends that it needed to. I'd spent years acquiring very specific skills in quantum computing research that people didn't value at all. The pay was terrible. The social environment was terrible. The management was terrible. It was time to leave.

So I went ahead and enrolled in App Academy, which my friend Scott had done before. So, for the last two months, I've spent every waking hour programming (well, maybe a few reading and playing Dota). I know Ruby, Rails, Javascript, Backbone (learning Angular) and I already knew Common Lisp.

Most importantly, I feel like it's a good life choice. I miss doing physics, but the universities have made it such a horrible environment to work in, it's not worth it to me, anymore. I'm happy I get to keep problem-solving in programming and, if I'm lucky, I'll find a job that uses my considerable skills in debugging and engineering.

The Job search starts today and I'm confident it will give me a fuller life than a career in Physics was offering.