Backpack paradox
Last year in Gottschalk's class we talked about how religions sometimes have "empty rituals" that people just do because they've always done them. Imagine that academia is a religion, since it basically is. When I go to my final exam in a few minutes, I carry my backpack with me. It is an empty ritual because it has no purpose. I am not transporting anything. All I need is my calculator, which I could easily put in my pocket. However, I've been bringing a backpack with me to academic exercises since I was 6, and it's basically a ritual practice now. Everyone else will bring a backpack as well. In fact, I, along with most people in the class, will probably put books or notebooks in it just to make it feel heavy and simulate the effect of this being a normal academic exercise rather than an onerous final exam. It just makes people feel better.