“Why do we have to learn this? We’ll never use it.”

Most of us have asked that question at some point.

When we’re sitting in a classroom, studying history, literature, philosophy, or a language we don’t think we’ll ever speak, it can feel like a waste of time.

We want practical skills.

We want something we can use immediately.

And it’s easy to believe that everything else is just useless information.

But here’s something worth considering: the knowledge that seems the least useful today often becomes the most valuable tomorrow.

Take Montaigne.

As a child in sixteenth-century France, he received an unusual education.

His father believed that learning should shape the mind, not simply prepare someone for a profession.

Instead of focusing only on practical training, he surrounded his son with books, ideas, languages, history, and philosophy.

He even arranged for Latin to become his first language, immersing him in the wisdom of the ancient world from an early age.

To many people, that probably looked impractical.

There were no guarantees that such an education would lead to wealth or success.

There were no obvious career advantages.

It would have been easy to dismiss it as time wasted.

But something remarkable happened.

As the years passed, all those different subjects came together.

History gave Montaigne perspective.

Literature deepened his empathy.

Philosophy taught him careful thinking.

Rhetoric strengthened his communication.

Each discipline reinforced the others.

They became more powerful together than they could ever have been alone.

The same is true for us.

General education doesn’t simply fill our heads with facts.

It teaches us to think.

We begin to notice patterns that other people overlook.

We learn to connect ideas.

We become better at solving problems.

The greatest breakthroughs come from connecting ideas.

That’s why it matters to have a general education.

Because we never know which idea will become the missing piece.

Montaigne didn’t become influential because he memorised facts.

He became influential because he learned to think independently.

A solid general education was the foundation of his success.

Today, we live in a world that rewards immediate results.

If something doesn’t seem useful right away, we’re tempted to dismiss it.

We constantly ask ourselves, “How will this help us right now?”

But the most valuable knowledge might not reveal its value overnight.

It grows little by little.

One idea leads us to another idea.

One lesson from history helps us understand today’s problems.

One philosophy class improves our decisions.

Each lesson may seem insignificant on its own.

But together, they help us understand the world.

So the next time we’re tempted to say, “This is useless,” let’s remember this:

We are building our minds.

We are learning to think sharp.

And the broader our minds become, the more opportunities we will see that other people fail to notice.

That is the purpose of a general education.

And that’s a great lesson to learn from Montaigne.

If you are interested in applying rational ideas in all sorts of situations, I recommend my book “The 10 Principles of Rational Living.”