Scholarly Minutiae

I just finished attending an academic conference, and I was struck (once again) by the minutiae with which we academics concern ourselves. And we wonder why much of what we do is so out of touch with the real world.

To be sure, some of these minutiae are important, but a lot of us (and I've been guilty of this as well) simply pursue minutiae for minutiae sake. Not for any furtherance of knowledge in such a way that would benefit the world in some way.