I’m useless, and happy to be

I’m humbled to announce that I’m officially self-certified as a useless person. It’s been almost two months of trying and failing at it but I finally made it! I want to thank everyone that helped me in this journey, my ex-colleagues at work, my family for understanding and supporting me, and all the social media influencers (Especially on LinkedIn and Twitter) that constantly push me away from the productivity cycle with their business/self-help books recommendations, their fictional work stories, hustle routines and inspirational quotes that I don't understand.

Being unemployed and without that much worry about it is an absolute privilege. And I acknowledge that having a break to pursue a big change driven by passion is not something that most people can do either because their responsibilities don’t allow them (Especially financial responsibilities) or because they are making this transition in a gradual and probably better way.

It’s been two months since I quit my last job to pursue my path and objectives, it was a difficult decision, especially because the place where I was working was amazing and because I have a huge impostor syndrome, a voice that is constantly telling me that I’m never going to be able either to make that jump or to have another work as good as the last one.

And at this point I haven’t made it yet, I’m applying for different opportunities (Both academic and work-related) that are more aligned with what I want to pursue and where I want to be (At 27 years old when I’m supposed to have my life defined), but nothing has come to reality by now.

Thankfully during this break, I gave also myself the opportunity to spend my time on things that I enjoy a lot doing and one of them is reading. I found a fantastic book that in some sense gave me relief about spending my time in things that are not necessarily “productive” but that help me to develop in other ways.

That book is called The Usefulness of the useless by Nuccio Ordine and after finishing it, reading my notes, trying to process and reflect on it, I consider it as a game-changer and one of the top 5 most relevant books that I’ve read in my life.

I would like to share with you some of the insights that I gain for my personal life from it and how my point of view and even my self-esteem evolved while I was reading it:

Disclaimer: This book is way deeper than the points that im giving you here so if you are looking for a good book, go check it out.

The guilt of productivity

There are thousands of videos, books, blogs, and resources on how to be more productive. And I was an avid consumer of all those things, following all kinds of pieces of advice and techniques from morning routines to focus enhancement substances. All to provide more output.

And even though there are really good materials out there and good advice, there are several things that we should consider when we consume or produce this kind of content.

On one side we must recognize that every single person is different and that there is no secret routine or technique that will fit everyone, These kinds of activities must be seen from the individual condition and reality of the person, not everyone needs to wake up at 5 am, not everyone needs to have a Pomodoro timer, not everyone needs a cold shower every morning, not everyone needs to give 15 hours a day to their job to feel that the day was not wasted.

On the other side, we must realize and understand the power of boredom, probably one of the best ways to achieve creativity at its finest is when we allow ourselves to get bored, to pause, to reflect, to process what is happening, and just enjoy the simplicity of the things around us.

And the most important thing is that we should not fall into the trap of believing that our self-worth is equal to the amount of output that we produce during a day. This is a thought that I’m still fighting and that in a world of appearances and constant push for output, I feel it will always be a struggle. But understanding that what I’m seeing is not what it is and focusing on being present in my reality will surely help.

Owning vs being

We are not what we have, again, we are not what we have.

Being goes ways beyond what we have, unfortunately in our society we tend to try to characterize ourselves with the number of things that we have or the kind of things that we have, without giving that much importance to our essence or even how the ownership of those things changes us on a negative way.

We have a really strange inclination to give value to the people based on what they have and this is a huge mistake because the real worth of a person is not shown in the kind of car they drive, the clothes they use or the places they visit.

We are a society that is obsessed with possessing things and this tendency, sometimes, don’t allow us to enjoy what we already have, or also can lead us to a full cycle of consumerism where we just hide our real feeling by acquiring things that give us pleasure for some time but then it fades away.

The painter is the one who paints, not the one who has the most expensive brush, and this aim of having, has to lead us to do things that we don’t want just because is well seen and not because we like it.

When we prioritize the being, our relationship with things can radically improve understanding that the things are not an end on itself but are a means that allows us to get closer to something and therefore is up to each one of us to define what we need, not to the standards of others.

For the sake of it

Something that is tiring from the self-help/business growth community that I was part of is the despise from fictional books, most of the routines of gurus and business people consider reading an essential part of their lives but are intense on reminding us that we need two read at least 10 pages of nonfictional books every day. That is something that doesn't resonate with me, because some of the best lessons that I got from books in my life, came from fantastic worlds, poetry, philosophy, etc. And they came without the expectation of having a tangible output.

There are things in life that should be done just for the sake of it, reading literature and poetry, studying a new topic just out of curiosity, painting for yourself, reading philosophy, etc. Not to get something out of it but just for the sake of doing it.

This has beauty on two sides, firstly it allows you to release the pressure of the output, and second, it will allow you to get insights and ideas that are as useful as they can be, just by getting yourself immersed in the uselessness.

We tend to praise too much from my perspective, the supposed genius of certain people, without understanding that what they’ve done is just a continuity of the effort of thousands of people that without the aim of money or fame have helped us to advance and improve our life as human beings.

And is precisely that obsession with productivity the one that has turned some of the most amazing discoveries and insights of our history into deathly weapons or horrible things.

My point here is that in the same way that you are always suggested to have a bunch of productive tasks and hobbies you should also give yourself the freedom to have an activity or hobby just for the sake of it, just for the aim of immersing yourself in the beauty of doing without a profit or outcome, and is likely that is precisely this activity the one that will give you the best insights about your life.

Conclusion

Again, this book is way deeper than the few lines that are written here, and if you are someone that is constantly chased in your mind by the pressure of productivity I highly suggest you read it. Also if you are already passionate about “Useless” topics but lately have gone away from them due to peer or societal pressure, give yourself an opportunity and read this amazing book.

This is not a call to just throw everything out and dedicate yourself exclusively to think and not do anything “societally productive”, but is more a call for calm and balance, for appreciation of the simple things of life and the aim of transcendence beyond what is presented as successful in our every day lives.

From my perspective in the world, besides all the problems that we are facing, there is one that concerns me a lot and is the possibility of a world where everyone knows how to code, but no one knows how to express themselves, so if you are one of those people with vocation and passion about what you do and just for the sake of it, I salute you and I encourage you to continue in your journey and to allow yourself to dream, to live and to be.