A lot of "learning" amounts to mental masturbation.

You read some novel idea. Get a hit of neurotransmitter reward. And keep clicking through Wikipedia. Or LessWrong. The dangerous part of this addiction is that learning is generally considered commendable.

Of course, most everyone fritters their life away on trivialities. There are worse trivialities. But wouldn't it be an amazing thing to be focused on actually doing things that after the fact you said "I'm really glad I did that."