[q_andrew]

As someone who went into a STEM field without any family connections to STEM, I have definitely been stuck eating carrots and not knowing why it didn't work.

Interestingly, the human brain tells itself carrot stories all the time:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-hidden-prospect/...

tldr: patients with split brain hemispheres will reflexively make up explanations for decisions made by the other half of their brains. Fascinating stuff, and makes me wonder how many things I've done that serve my subconscious' ulterior motives.

[bennettnate5]

I'd love to hear more about what kinds of carrots you were fed coming in from a non-STEM background. For me, the one I can remember was a family friend recommending I stick to an engineering field (mechanical, electrical, civil, etc.) rather than CS because "there was much more money to be made in those fields". Thankfully I stuck to what I liked, which was coding.

[isaacremuant]

Even if you made less with coding, there's also a life balance question on the trade-off of doing what you like VS pure money quantity. Long term, you want to enjoy your day to day, in any kind of endeavour and the good can get you through the bad.

[nathan_compton]

I don't dispute the split hemispheres story but I don't think its particularly informative about normal cognitive function. I mean missing the connection between your brains is a pretty extreme situation.