Choice of profession: Scientist or Programmer

Thank you all for your advice! You all helped me a lot!

Hello. I apologize for the topic that is most likely interesting only to me. Do not think that I write everything that fits into my head. I just have been worried about this question for several months now and I can’t find an answer to it. And since almost the entire audience of HabraHabr is smart, versatile and educated, I decided to discuss this issue here.

What is the essence of the issue?

I'm at a crossroads. I can not find the answer to perhaps one of the most important questions in my life: what should I do in adulthood? Previously, this question did not bother me at all, but when I entered the university, when in a year I would have to choose a department and when I would need to prioritize very soon, the search for an answer to it became an urgent problem.
Be a scientist or programmer? All my life to seek the truth or delve into applied information technology? If a scientist, then a physicist or mathematician?

Scientist

What will the "young scientist" profession give me:

• Interesting job
• An interesting and versatile team
• Comparatively low salary (*)
• FEAR(**)
• A sense of uniqueness and some kind of elitism. It is a feeling that there is a relatively small circle of people who, like you, are engaged in this activity with the exciting title “SCIENCE”

(*) There is another very important point of scientific activity in Russia: “low wages”. This item quite significantly presses on self-esteem when you see a person who is much dumber than you (you are sure of this, since you studied with him for 5 years at the university), but you are in a Lada car and he is on a Porshe Cayenne. This problem can be avoided: go to work in another country. But what about the homeland? How can absolutely nothing be done for your country? How can you help develop another state that could potentially be the enemy of your homeland? Moreover, we have a country with such a history that it’s breathtaking! Is it possible to suppress these issues in oneself and live for oneself?

(**) What do I mean by fear in scientific activity? I don’t know how scientists have already taken place, but when I imagine myself in the place of a young scientist, I’m afraid. I'm afraid that in all my life I will not discover anything new for humanity, nothing useful. I'm afraid that I will not have any nominal theorem. I'm afraid that what I will do to anyone in the future and in the present will not be useful.

Programmer

I’ll clarify in advance. It is understood that a “programmer” is not a person who simply cuts any program code. I mean, this is a person who does not deal with the theoretical part of IT, but with something related to its applied side. For example, it can be an IT project manager or a software designer or just an encoder.

And here is what the “young programmer” profession will give me:

• Good salary
• Perhaps also an interesting team (*)
• Standard career path (**)
• Understanding that there are a lot of people like you really is not very pleasant to realize (Any person wants to be at least a little higher than others. That is probably why there is competition)

(*) For 4 years, while I am actively interested in IT, I had to talk with many programmers. And during this time I realized that my interests diverged from them. Few of them play football, read classics, listen to club music, etc. Therefore, I inserted the word "maybe." By the way, why didn’t I put this word in the paragraph that refers to the young scientist? Based on personal experience.

(**) For some time after the university, I will plan the code, then, with any luck, I will become a project manager, then I will come up with some kind of my project, which even if it becomes successful, it will bother me with time and I will receive again from him only money, and not self-satisfaction that I am doing what I love.

Together

Dream: to simultaneously engage in scientific activities (wild interest), to be a manager of some IT (practical results and salary) of a project, a university teacher (interest).
It is possible to combine all this, but to achieve something outstanding in any field of the three is almost unrealistic. To do this, you need to delve into your area almost completely, and not just a little bit of everything. I hope you understand what I mean.

I am terribly afraid of making a mistake in choosing. I don’t want to regret all my life that I chose the wrong path.

Once again, I apologize for the abundance of the words "I", "Mine," "Mine," etc. Give advice, please, how to decide? What aspects of these professions have I missed? Maybe this question excites not only me, then it will help not only me. Thanks in advance.