Humility. Failure. The question presumes that there is something more important to study. After devoting some time to the study of and much more time to the practice of computer programming because of an idea I had in my head at the age of 18 that the skill was broadly in demand and would keep me employed I find myself wishing I had stuck to the old default of the classics and delayed the choice of a profession until after I knew at least something rather than nothing.
The ancient world now seems to me to exist as a parallel universe where literature is as advanced if not more so than in this universe, but technology lags behind. This study illustrates to me at least the conservative perspective that human nature is constant over the ages.