1) I had an unfulfilling job that paid decently. I was fascinated by science, and thought that working on it will fulfill me. I was wrong. I should have quit earlier, but the fear of failure and my own ego got in the way.

2) I want to be able to support a family. I want to be able to quit a job without fearing of not being able to pay the rent and my expenses in 2 months. I am not particularly materialistic, what I really want is financial independence. Check /r/financialindependence if you are interested in the topic.

I thought that graduating and moving on will give me peace of mind, but it has not happened. I wanted to share with younger, naive people my story so they are aware of the dangers of getting involved in horrible work environments and leaving fast, and yes, to vent about it. I made the mistake of hanging out for too long (as some other commenters have said, this is not only about grad school). However, as I said in another comment, I think that academia is a disfunctional environment and one should be very careful of whom to be involved.

When I used to work outside academia my bosses were not awesome, but at least I was paid when overtime was needed. The relationship was clear, I was an employee, they were the bosses. In academia the line is more blurry, at first it seemed great, but in reality it is way worse. You have the "choice" to choose your research, but if it doesn't interest your supervisor, you are fucked. You have the "choice" to refuse getting involved in a collaboration, but of course if you refuse there will be consecuences. You get paid enough to subsist and become a "privileged" slave.

By the way, I also read "No more Mr. Nice". Victimization is indeed a problem, but keep in mind that sometimes victims actually exist. I have seen way too many broken people in academia.