I was forced to read The Scarlett Letter in high school, and I have never once had to use that knowledge in my professional life. I memorized dates for history

I was forced to read The Scarlett Letter in high school, and I have never once had to use that knowledge in my professional life. I memorized dates for history exams in high school, and that knowledge has had no practical impact on my life whatsoever. When introducing myself to (non-math/science) academics and telling them I was a (now former) physics professor, I can't tell you how often the first thing out of their mouth was something along the lines of "I was never very good at math" or "I never liked science." I frequently have had doctors tell me how much they hated physics as a pre-med student. That kind of pride in ignorance is quite rare in the opposite direction. The most broadly educated people I know are scientists. [edit: typo fix]