If this: "The strength of the academic enterprise imo is doing hard-to-monetize basic research: developing the ideas and techniques that after several more ite

If this: "The strength of the academic enterprise imo is doing hard-to-monetize basic research: developing the ideas and techniques that after several more iterations will produce or enable interesting things. I tend to think of tech-heavy startups as essentially mining ideas and results that are promising but have never been made practical; academia's job is to keep restocking that mine." and this: "The explanation is that, with all its aloofness, the university has an essential role to play, viz. to explain to the world the foolishness of its ways." Are the purpose of academia, then that's fine for academics in the sciences and math. However, that still gives little justification for academics specializing somewhere deep in liberal arts.