Bertrand Russell on Useless Knowledge
A defense of the things you learn for no reason at all
Reading: Bertrand Russell on the Value of Useless Knowledge · Maria Popova
Useful knowledge gets the budget. Useless knowledge — the etymology of a word you do not need, the migration of a bird you will not see, the history of a place you may never visit — has to defend itself, and usually loses.
The defense Russell wrote a century ago still holds. Knowledge that earns nothing teaches the mind how to keep its own company. It is the difference between a room that exists only when there is a meeting in it and a room that has a window. The first is efficient. The second is somewhere a life can happen.
The case for reading the thing you will never use is older than the productivity industry, and quieter, and more durable.