It just feels like navel gazing sometimes ig, something to keep academics occupied while the world burns.

This is a good way to put how I’ve felt about academia the past couple years. Had a prof yesterday ask me why I want to move into the industry after graduation and had to, on the spot, think of a tactful way of saying that lmao. So much of it is just spinning our wheels for no meaningful outcome. Which isn’t to say I think knowledge for its own sake is bad, but it feels a lot like wasted potential and resources when there’s over a thousand homeless people living in this city.
Sorry to go off on a tangent there, but academia is mindbogglingly soul crushing at times.