Your job sounds great!

I definitely miss that part of industry. Academia is just a continuum of projects that are never finished.

Ahhhh, to complete a task, a list, a frickin paragraph without being bombarded by an over-zealous PI with the next project!  Isn't that the definition of ADHD?  I guess that is what makes them successful at their jobs...but for me it is ANNOYING...  I shudder at the thought of having lab meeting every Friday when inevitably we (and when I say "we", I really mean "I") will have to do 4 more experiments to clarify the last experiment I did...each of which have nothing to directly with the project at hand.  In fact, if we thought of this more carefully instead of chasing 20 different rabbit holes we may have been able to come up with a technique that would have answered all those questions and the initial question we are asking in one fell swoop!  But that would require some forethought....

I would argue that in the lab something is finished when it is published and that then the next project starts.  Sometimes the project doesn't go anywhere and you scrap it.  It's quite similar to what you are describing really.

I guess it is how you look at things.  Although I do kind of get what you are saying.

It probably partly depends on the field that you're in as well.  Some fields unfold more slowly than others and projects are more intertwined, in others projects are a little more separated out and it probably feels more like a conclusion of a project when you publish. I agree though that there is always something more that can be done, some unanswered question, I suppose it might depend on the kind of person you are as well as to how much that bothers you, how you feel about 'loose ends'. It surprises me that it's different in industry though, I suppose that's why people often suggest that just because you don't necessarily enjoy academic research you might still thrive in industry, they suit different personalities I guess.