What is the point of anything? When I was younger I believed in ideas such as "the sky is the limit", but as I get older it is clear that that's total bs. Every single human being has some kind of upper bound of what they can achieve based on immutable factors such as inherited brain structure. For example, people like Ed Witten (regardless of whether String theory is total nonsense or not) are born with amazing abilities and therefore have no trouble in accomplishing things that to others seem amazing. On the other hand, most people have very clear limitations.

I suppose it's an extension of the difference between man and other animals. A dog, after all, will never understand physics (as taught by a human being). These very concrete limitations (along with the usual politics of academic settings) are the reason why most "scientists" never accomplish anything worthwhile; they simply do not have it in them.

So I ask, what is the point of doing anything (e.g. being a scientific research) other than things that give you material gain (i.e. just trying to get rich)? How do you decide what is worthwhile to do in life?