TITLE: Does a mathematician study more, or research more?
QUESTION [30 upvotes]: Lately I've been studying graduate mathematics courses really hard day and night. Realizing that the things I'm learning (currently basic manifold theory and commutative algebra) are really an epsilon of the grand scheme of things, I've grown fearful of things to come: do I have to keep on doing this even in future after I make myself a professional mathematician?
My prime motivation in continuing mathematical study so far has been that some day I'd get to explore the vast sea of possibilities and constantly venture into the unknown by asking questions and attempting to answer them. However, if I'm fated to study a lot more than I get to venture, (say, if I have to spend more than 70% of my time into studying what someone else ventured) I really may not want to do this mathematician business.
Can someone tell me if professional mathematician really have to spend so much time into reading what someone else did?

REPLY [4 votes]: I can't answer your question since I'm not a professional mathematician, but your question sounds like a cry for help. 
A lot of young people are dreaming of making their passions to their profession but have to suppress their real interests to become competable. And that's hazardous: you risk to kill your passions to become a cog in an efficient machinery dealing with tip knowledge that interests somebody else but not really you.
Paul Garrrett wrote that study and research was inseparable and I believe that having fun while studying should be inseparable too. There must be time for playing around. Keeping the passion alive make the study much more giving. The right balance between passion and work, I think, need to minimize the destructive impact from careerism and social pressure. 
After all, you have a talent to manage and to invest in, in a sensible way.