The Point of Pointlessness – And What to Do About It – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1249
The Point of Pointlessness – And What to Do About It – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1249
Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1249 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.
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Preamble
This post is different from our usual conversation. It is based on thoughts from the writer Brian Eno’s diary titled ‘A Year with Swollen Appendices’. Quoted from ‘The Marginalian’ by Maria Popova.
The Point of Pointlessness – And What to Do About It
There comes a moment, often quietly, often unexpectedly, when everything we have been striving for suddenly feels empty.
The work continues. The deadlines remain. The achievements accumulate.
But somewhere beneath the surface, a question emerges:
What is the point of all this?
This is what Maria Popova’s reflection on burnout and Brian Eno’s experience captures so powerfully—the moment she describes as a “hollowing… a deadening of the spirit”
It is not failure.
It is not laziness.
It is something far more profound.
It is what we may call: The point of pointlessness.
When Success Loses Meaning
Paradoxically, this feeling often arrives not at the bottom, but near the top.
After achieving professional milestones, delivering major projects, and reaching long-awaited goals. Instead of satisfaction, there is fatigue. Instead of fulfillment, there is doubt.
Brian Eno described this phase as working purely from momentum where ideas are no longer alive but “painfully squeezed out”.
This is the first critical insight: Pointlessness is not the absence of activity; it is the absence of meaning. And in today’s corporate and professional environments, this condition is becoming increasingly common.
The Root Cause: Instrumental Living
At the heart of this phenomenon lies a deeper problem, what we may call instrumentalization of life.
We begin to treat everything as a means to an end. Work becomes a path to promotion, learning becomes a tool for advancement, relationships become networks, and even rest becomes “recovery for productivity”.
Nothing is allowed to simply be. Everything must justify itself.
Over time, this mindset erodes something essential: The ability to experience life directly, without purpose, without utility, without outcome. And when that disappears, pointlessness sets in.
The Collapse of the “Mattering Project”
Another profound idea embedded in the article is what can be called the “mattering project”; the constant internal effort to prove that we matter.
We ask:
Does my work matter?
Do I matter?
Is this meaningful?
But the more we chase answers, the more elusive they become.
As Eno reflects during his low point:
“What’s the bloody point?”
“I’m a completely empty shell.”
Here lies a paradox. The harder we try to find meaning, the more it slips away.
Why Distraction Doesn’t Work
When confronted with pointlessness, most people respond by working harder, distracting themselves, consuming more content, and seeking constant stimulation.
But as Eno observed, distractions only delay the confrontation. They do not resolve it. Because the problem is not external; it is internal.
The Turning Point: Facing the Void
The breakthrough comes not from avoiding the feeling, but from facing it fully.
Eno describes deliberately entering solitude, choosing stillness, even boredom, until he reaches what feels like the “edge of the abyss.”
This is deeply counterintuitive in today’s world. We are conditioned to avoid discomfort, escape silence, and fill every empty moment.
But the article suggests something radical: The way out of pointlessness is through it.
The Secret: Unselfing
What happens next is the most powerful insight of all. The recovery does not come from solving the question. It comes from forgetting it.
Eno describes a moment when something trivial, a plane crossing the sky, the smell of trees, the evening light, suddenly brings joy.
Nothing has changed: the questions remain unanswered, he doubts are unresolved, and yet, they no longer matter. This is what philosophers call “unselfing”, the quiet dissolution of obsessive self-focus.
Instead of asking: What is the point of my life? We begin to notice the texture of light, the rhythm of nature, and the presence of being alive.
And in that shift, meaning reappears, not as an answer, but as an experience.
The Role of Nature: Lessons from Trees
The article’s subtle reference to trees is not incidental; it is symbolic.
Trees do not justify their existence, measure their productivity, or compare their growth.
They simply grow, adapt, and respond to light.
As another reflection suggests, trees embody a way of being rooted in attention and responsiveness rather than constant striving.
There is a lesson here for us: Meaning is not constructed through constant effort; it emerges through alignment with life itself.
From Control to Surrender
Perhaps the most counterintuitive insight is this: Meaning returns at the moment we stop trying to control it.
Eno describes this shift vividly: letting go, ceding control, and giving up the search. And then suddenly, sense of “sheer mad joy at the world” returns.
This is not achievement. This is not success. This is something deeper: Aliveness.
What Leaders and Professionals Must Learn
For senior executives, corporate leaders, and professionals, this insight carries profound implications.
In high-performance environments, people are constantly goal-driven, relentlessly productive, and perpetually evaluated. This creates fertile ground for pointlessness.
Because, when everything becomes a means to an end, nothing feels meaningful anymore.
Practical Ways to Navigate the Point of Pointlessness
Drawing from these insights, here are practical ways to respond.
Stop Forcing Meaning: Do not rush to “fix” the feeling. Pointlessness is often a transition phase, not a permanent state.
Allow Stillness: Create space for silence, solitude, and boredom. These are not inefficiencies—they are gateways to renewal.
Shift Attention Outward: Move from self-focus → to world-focus. Notice nature, people, and simple experiences. This is the essence of unselfing.
Reconnect with Intrinsic Joy: Ask, what do I enjoy without outcome? What feels alive, not useful?
Accept the Cyclical Nature of Meaning: Meaning is not constant. Like seasons, it fades, returns, and transforms.
A Deeper Reflection: The Hidden Gift of Pointlessness
What if pointlessness is not a problem, but a signal?
A signal that something within us needs recalibration, that our current path has become too mechanical, that we have drifted too far into instrumental living.
As the article suggests, this phase is often a period of “recalibration and regeneration”.
Sum Up
In the end, the solution to pointlessness is not a better answer.
It is a different way of being. Not chasing meaning, proving value, or maximizing output. But,
experiencing life, noticing beauty, and allowing joy.
Because the deepest truth is this: Meaning is not something we create. t is something we encounter when we stop trying so hard to find it. And sometimes, all it takes is the passing cloud, the smell of trees, and the quiet light of evening; to remind us that being alive is, in itself, enough.
Concluded.
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For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately.
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