Just because you spend your time learning something not directly applicable to real world applications doesn't mean it's time wasted. Challenging exercises challenge you. Lots of math people look down on programming because it's not pure, and there's wasted effort/talent spent making software that people don't necessarily use; whereas, every contribution to math is kind of permanent and irrefutable. What they don't understand is, like most education, it's an analytical exercise which builds neural pathways. Sure, there are many abstract concepts you learn in school which aren't practically useful, but the point is that you learn how to interface with those abstractions. You're taught how to think and learn according to various paradigms, and that accomplishment can be applied to any kind of work.
I hate people who don't like art or fiction. So myopic. Learning is fun. I may not be an artist, but doing studies, reading Loomis, etc. builds my spatial skills as well as my patience and my self-confidence as it pertains to how willing I am to learn new stuff. That spatial ability can be used for geometry, puzzles, general critical thinking and problem solving. Fiction let's us think about ethics, metaphysics, philosophy, empathy, and other stuff in a way that isn't confined to our cultural circumstance.