> Were they learning foreign languages? Becoming experts at symbolic logic or global politics? I'll bet some of them were doing these things or things equally

> Were they learning foreign languages? Becoming experts at symbolic logic or global politics? I'll bet some of them were doing these things or things equally meaningful. Probably in roughly the same proportion as they would have been 40 or even 400 years ago. Most people don't spend significant portions of their lives learning things or challenging themselves. From what I can tell this has always been true.