On purposeful learning

I was cleaning out my Onenote files the other day and came across a poem by WB Yeats I liked and saved:

"What Then?"

His chosen comrades thought at school
He must grow a famous man;
He thought the same and lived by rule,
All his twenties crammed with toil;
`What then?' sang Plato's ghost. `What then?'

Everything he wrote was read,
After certain years he won
Sufficient money for his need,
Friends that have been friends indeed;
`What then?' sang Plato's ghost. `What then?'

All his happier dreams came true -
A small old house, wife, daughter, son,
Grounds where plum and cabbage grew,
Poets and Wits about him drew;
`What then?' sang Plato's ghost. `What then?'

`The work is done,' grown old he thought,
`According to my boyish plan;
Let the fools rage, I swerved in naught,
Something to perfection brought';
But louder sang that ghost, `What then?'

I mean to post a science-based post soon but this has been a continuation of conversations we've had in the past semester. What is the end goal of accruing knowledge for all of you? How will we use it? Or will we end up spinning our wheels with minutiae discoveries only for the sake of accruing grants we require for personal survival?