Academics are sitting on a big pile of knowledge that usually doesn’t get used

From The Art of Storytelling by Martin Eiermann, an interview with Carlo Rotella.

A lot of the craft is having one foot in the academy, and one foot outside in reporting. I write a column for the “Boston Globe” because I’ve always wanted to try my hand at being a columnist, and also because it is a way of writing your way into where you live. It tends to pull you into going out and meeting people. Academics are sitting on a big pile of knowledge that usually doesn’t get used. You don’t want to maximize the return on everything you are doing, but writing is a way to balance out the patience and long-wave interests of academia.

In our modern world of informational effluent, it is perpetually astounding to me, just how much is known of which we are completely ignorant or of which we only have a fleeting glimpse. There is indeed a big pile of useful knowledge out there if you only know where to look or even that you ought to be looking.