What do grad students in math do all day?
An incredibly accurate depiction of research in any theoretical field, I'd say. Compound that with the fact that during your education you're mostly presented with texts that summarize decades or more of research into a scant few pages as if the people involved had just flowed naturally from one idea to the next, from a problem statement to the incredibly complex idea that unlocks the proof.<p>When it's finally your turn to try your hand at actual research, it turns out that your contributions are barely a couple of side notes on a restricted subset of a problem in the hope that someone will use that information to find out something that is actually relevant in practice.<p>Rather than turning me off from academia, it makes me marvel at the tower of minuscule pebbles upon which our modern civilization rests. One day, I might get to place a few more of them on top.