Seek Relevant Connections: So what? Why does it matter? Why should you care? How does the argument have personal importance to you? Does it have communal importance for those around you? How does it connect to your life now? Thirty years from now? Essays on economics have implications for people who aren't economists themselves. Arguments about education and public welfare have implications for anyone who goes to school or who pays taxes. Arguments about raising children one way or another not only have implications for potential parents, they also affect everyone who must live with the next generation of youngsters. It is the sign of a weak or lazy intellect to suggest that such material has no relevance in the individual's life. Apathy is an intellectual sin, and boredom the fruit of that vice. Seek out the relevant connections, and you will find them. If the topic doesn't seem important to you immediately, why does the author think it is important?