Doing things right vs. Doing the right thing

I come across this idea of doing the things right vs doing the right thing.

This dilema is interesting because I realize a lot of times, we are in this autopilot mode of not thinking about how we can do things better. BUT even more so, we are not thinking about whether what we are doing at the time is the right thing to do. Whether the effort is worth our time and ability.

One example in my personal experience is my goal for becoming medical professional vs. studying computer science and programming.

My friends and family for the most part advised me to forget about learning about computer science as I have been on the medical path for such a long time. I however felt the passion for computer science despite of their advices. This dilema has made myself quite distress for the past few month. From their point of view, the investment in time and effort in one direction is lost if I set my eye onto another direction.

I feel this idea is deeply flawed. I would not have been the same person if I have not push my limits toward a exceedingly difficult goal. I wouldn’t have the confidence to succeed in studying computer science.

Thus I believe doing things right is much more important than doing the “right” thing. How can we judge what’s the “right” thing to do anyways?