Not the parent commenter, but I feel it&#x27;s because our society doesn&#x27;t value knowledge or scholarship.  Whenever I get depressed, I feel it&#x27;s because I want to spend time learning and discovering but instead I&#x27;m forced to race against all the other rats just to have a decent standard of living (and I&#x27;m not talking about $50k cars).  There&#x27;s no time or energy left to, say, study differential equations or chemistry or anything that would actually benefit humanity.  Instead, I must devote myself to activities that essentially have no value.