Practical applications Memes

Mathematicians live in their beautiful world of abstract concepts until someone dares ask "but what's this used for in real life?" Then comes the existential crisis vomit. They've spent hours deriving elegant proofs about n-dimensional manifolds only to struggle explaining why anyone should care. "Well, um, you could... calculate the optimal... something?" Pure mathematicians would rather prove the existence of 11 dimensions than provide one practical example that normal humans understand.