I started in software and moved on to physics, which has a lot of programming and is similar in many ways. Still, it’s different and I like that I made the choice. I will soon have contributed to physics in a small but meaningful way, which was my reason for switching. I plan to stop after that and just go back to programming. Posts like these make me think I should switch again but to an even more orthogonal subject.
You are asking something different, but I think it’s interesting to mention that the particles that go into the LHC don’t start there. The LHC gets them from the SPS, which gets them from the PS and this keeps going for a few more steps.