I think the end of the article sums it up. >“The story of mathematical research is that you don’t know beforehand if you can solve a challenging problem or whe

I think the end of the article sums it up. >“The story of mathematical research is that you don’t know beforehand if you can solve a challenging problem or whether it will lead to something important,” Pomerance said. “You can’t decide in advance: Today I’m going to do something valuable. Though it’s great, of course, when things turn out that way.” In other words: 'Maybe someone, someday, will figure out if this matters. It'll be neat if it does'