[laGrenouille]

The opening of this essay is a beautifully written and surprisingly timely reflection on the importance of not judging the worth of time spent on certain pursuits purely on their direct, material utility.

I was hoping the rest would build on the deeper importance of fields such as art, music, and literature at the level of both the individual and society as a whole. Unfortunately, the rest is a bit underwhelming. It is mostly examples showing how particular pursuits in mathematics and theoretical physics eventually created more practical applications in future generations. Interesting, of course, but still focused on raw 'utility', just one step more removed.