What the others said tbh.
You're not an idiot, he's just had more experience right now. You'll probably learn quickly enough. I know it's horrible feeling like you're interrupting people with really inane questions, but you've got to ask them to start with plus the more you ask the quicker you'll learn. Just be glad you've got people not too far ahead of you that you can go to for advice I guess.

I don't mind my topic and I can do the work. Sometimes it's interesting and sometimes it's not. I quite like my supervisor too. It's more that I can't stop questioning whether this is really the area of chemistry I want to be going into. It just feels like it's such a big decision and it was made without really considering it properly. What really worries me is that I often feel like I'm in completely the wrong section (chemistry is generally divided into organic, inorganic and physical). I don't know many other phd students so I don't really know if it's normal to feel trapped like this.

Hello,

I've been getting a bit stuck in my head recently. I started my PhD in October. To begin with I was quite depressed with it and it felt like every day dragged, now I've got to the point where I don't hate it but I still can't stop wondering if I'm doing the right thing. I think I rushed into it a bit too much. I always wanted to do a PhD but I wasn't sure which area of chemistry I wanted to be in. Graduation was approaching and I got offered something in my department, it looked fairly interesting so I accepted it. I think that might have been a mistake. Maybe I'd have done better to stop and work out what I really wanted first.

Right now I just feel like a don't actually want to get a PhD. If I get qualified as a PhD student in this area, then if I want to stay in research I'll probably have to stay around this area. That terrifies me and makes keeping up with the work harder. It feels like I'm being swept further and further away from all the other options that were right there last year. I was doing ok for a bit and then we had a departmental talk on something I almost applied to and everything I was trying to ignore got stirred up again.

Anyway, I wanted to ask other PhD students whether it's normal to feel like this? Is this something that everyone goes through or am I actually screwed up? Thank you if you read this and double thank you if you reply.