Shakespeare really hurt you didn't he :D

IMO study whatever you like, no? For me being deeply immersed in a topic that doesn't 1:1 translate to an improvement on the CV is its own pleasure. This way I get to read (complex stuff) for pleasure because it isn't connected to the career hamster-wheel. There is no pressure, while at the same time directly improving my foundation - whether that is Philosophy, pure Math or niche-History does it matter?

> better off focusing on what's actually in the modern world.

this might change your mind: https://www.suhrkamp.de/rights/book/andreas-reckwitz-loss-fr... (If you only want to study what's actually happening in the modern world, this is the one that explains the loss from Modernity through a sociological lense)

I recall N.N. Taleb also making some good points about why to read books that have stood the test of time rather than a best-seller.

> Shakespeare really hurt you didn't he :D

Nah, just find him overrated.

I give the elevator pitch version, people respond as if I've not given it any thought at all, so I might as well add a few more words in the first version so I don't have to reply with a metaphorical eye-roll.

> this might change your mind: https://www.suhrkamp.de/rights/book/andreas-reckwitz-loss-fr... (If you only want to study what's actually happening in the modern world, this is the one that explains the loss from Modernity through a sociological lense)

Thanks for the link, but I already have quite a lot on my to-read list.

> I recall N.N. Taleb also making some good points about why to read books that have stood the test of time rather than a best-seller.

Thinking of other authors I find overrated… :P