Since he doesn&#x27;t really give specifics, it&#x27;s hard to tell, but I wouldn&#x27;t necessarily read most academic papers that mention applications (especially &quot;potential&quot; applications) as having an actual desire to work on short-term industry-relevant problems. Yes, papers often have a vague gesture towards, &quot;breakthroughs in [graph algorithm X] have potential uses in [networking problem]&quot;, but this doesn&#x27;t necessarily indicate a deep desire to work on problems relevant to industry. Rather, it more often indicates a deep desire to work on graph algorithms, and external pressure to throw in a mention about potential applications in some hot area. So I wouldn&#x27;t read too much into it.