Am I Useful?
06-sep-2026
We all want to be useful.
As a child, I heard my teachers call me a “useless fellow” numerous times when I did not meet their expectations. Somewhere along the way, usefulness became something to aspire to. To be useful meant that you mattered.
But is usefulness overrated?
Being useful is certainly good to have. I am just not sure it is an absolute requirement for a meaningful life. I once read something by Derek Sivers that stayed with me. He wrote, in essence, that if art were useful, it would be a tool. I kept thinking about that.
A tool exists because of what it can do for someone else. Its value comes from its usefulness. And perhaps there is a danger in applying the same standard to ourselves. If we are constantly asking, “How am I useful?”, there is a point at which we may begin treating ourselves like tools. Today, I increasingly do things for the joy they bring me, or the joy they bring to people around me. I am less bothered by the question of whether they are useful. Long story short, I am no longer in pursuit of usefulness.
After many years, I have started learning the nuances of technology again. Not because I have figured out how this knowledge will become useful, but because I genuinely enjoy understanding it. Curiously, learning technology is also helping me understand human beings better. For years, I had shelved serious technical learning because I could never answer the question: “What use will this be?” Now that I no longer need an answer, I feel liberated enough to learn. Usefulness certainly has its upsides. But what about its downsides?
Have you ever thought about what happens when being useful becomes the way we measure our worth?
P.S. As I write this, I am studying ambiguity in systems. It started as research into a problem I want to solve in the maritime space, but it has already given me some interesting insights into ambiguity and its relationship with the human mind.
Useless & ambiguous :)