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When I was young, my mother often reproached me for playing various trivia games and quizzes, for allegedly wasting time instead of, for example, “learning something really useful.” Well, years have passed - and the house in which I’m actually writing this post today was bought with the proceeds of a pub quiz project that I created.
In fact, you never know which of our hobbies and interests will turn out to be a waste of time, and which, under the right circumstances, will bring good results. So our selection of stories today is dedicated to various activities that people used to spend hours and hours doing - only to realize later it actually was totally pointless.
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#2
Thinking about conversations hours after they happened and trying to think of what I could have said differently.
Apatheist Account2 3 months ago
That's not pointless. It can help you to do better the next time something similar occurs, especially if upset or embarrassment was caused.
A few days ago, a thread appeared in the AskReddit community, which as of today boasts 5.6K upvotes and over 3K various comments. The thread's starter, the user u/FreshModeSP, asked readers: "What's the most pointless thing you've spent hours doing, only to realize it was completely useless?"
From video games to online feuds, and from various hobbies to failed startups - it turns out that people regret wasted time so much that they’re willing to spend even more time discussing other people's failures. However, discussing something like this has always been interesting, hasn't it?
#4
When my manager got fired I picked up his responsibilities thinking it would help me move up. All of our departments numbers got better. My co-workers were much happier because I let them have more flexible schedules and I approved pretty much every time off request. I spoke with my GM and he claimed to be on board with me moving up but said that he couldn't open the position up right away. About six months later they opened the position up for applications so I put my resume in, then they hired someone else that never worked in the industry so he didn't know how to do anything and he was acting extremely rude to customers when they requested certain services that our company specifically specialized in. About one month later he decided the job wasn't for him so he stepped down and they transferred him to a different location to avoid drama. My GM immediatly tried to have me fill in again without promoting me but I told him to f**k off. Now I work for one of their competitors and I make roughly 50% more an hour above my former co-workers with a much better benefit package and I don't have to do any management work.
Paul C. 3 months ago
I had similar. Woman who worked in another department applied to work with me running the Post Room, which include quite a bit of manual lifting. I told HR she wouldn't be able to cope but they knew best. Cue me doing all the heavy lifting, only to find out six months down the line she was on a way higher wage due to a company policy that meant she stayed on her original wages!
#6
Watching productivity videos for three hours instead of doing the thing.
In fact, people have always been interested in something other than their immediate work responsibilities, family and chores. This is, by and large, what makes us human, and what distinguishes us from animals. We’re capable of getting carried away by detached things, doing something extremely irrational - simply because we like it. We like it here and now.
How wrong is all this? Perhaps some kind of balance is important. Well, you can, for example, spend hundreds of hours on gaming, and never become a pro gamer, but if your hobby hasn’t seriously interfered with your life - why not? After all, you enjoyed it, and you considered it important at some point in your life.
You know, many years ago I myself spent several months creating a detailed mod of a sports simulator (EA Sports FIFA), making a complete copy of the 1982 World Cup. In the end, several hundred people played this mod, a couple of months later a new version of the game came out, and the mod became totally irrelevant... But you know, it was still one of the happiest moments in my entire memory!
#8
Telling myself negative things about myself. That insane body I had 20 years ago? I thought it was trash at the time ("I could stand to lose a little pinch here"). Earning degrees? I took it for granted. Awards? Compliments? I rejected them. Now I just say "thank you" and try to be nice to myself inside my brain. It's been life changing.
#9
I spent weeks learning how to code and I made my own website for teachers to play a game in class. Got it fully functional. Later I was describing it to a friend and he said, oh kind of like ____.com which is when I realized someone had already made my idea happen.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 3 months ago
I just spent the last few months writing an Arkanoid clone in C. Has it been done before? Of course! Thousands of times! But the point of writing it wasn't the end product, it was the journey! It was a learning experience. I've been a programmer for 20 years, but this is the first thing I've written and finished in C. Learning a new skill is always worth it, if only to keep the neurons firing!
Of course, arguing for hours with other anonymous users on the Internet looks completely pointless from a rational point of view - it would probably be better to read an interesting book, watch an educational video or a good movie. But, in the end, if it brings you pleasure, then why not?
We’ve lost much of this pleasure from “useless” hobbies in the endless pursuit of productivity. “For parents, free time has actually gone down quite significantly,” The Telegraph quotes Nick Srnicek, co-author of the book ‘After Work,’ which examines the erosion of free time.
“It’s particularly an affliction of the professional managerial classes - but it also gets into hustle culture. Like: are you spending your free time just sitting around doing nothing? Aren’t you trying to learn the next productivity hack?” Doesn’t that sound a lot like our lives?
#10
Not blocking family and "friends" who overstepped boundaries.
Now, I don't even block. I stick them in archive. One of my aunts has sent me 1,435 messages, which are all unread.
Yeah life is boring without all the pointless drama, but I'm no longer stressed out or annoyed either. They've started actively ignoring me now when they see me, I think they're under the impression it will upset me but once I realised what they were doing it lifted a weight off my shoulders. I'm no longer worried about bumping into them in public, they won't say anything to me other than stare at me from a distance.
#11
Spent hundreds of hours making a large and complicated cross stitch sampler for a close family members wedding. Spent a fortune framing it. They got divorced. I can't even stand to think about what happened to it. Lesson learned.
Marnie 3 months ago
This is really sad, but honestly, I think it's always a bad idea to spend that much time on a such a gift, unless the people have honestly said they want it before you start making it. It might not match their decor or just not be a type of thing they like. You've put so much time and effort into something that they just don't like and/or don't really want. It's a lose-lose.
#12
I used to work at a pizza and sub shop. We used sliced white American cheese for the subs and it came in 3lb blocks. Each slice was off set from the other so that you could easily peel it off for serving. The owner made us slice the block down the middle into halves, then peel and re-stack the cheese from being in a rectangle shape to being an "x" shape. It was completely useless as the cheese was already easily separated with the off set manner of packaging. It was 25 years ago and I think about it weekly.
SchadenFreudian Psychology 3 months ago
Boss makes workers do busywork. In other news, sun rises in east.
Of course, there are things that are directly harmful to your health or the health and well-being of those around you, and that’s a completely different matter. But if we spent dozens of hours, for example, manually tagging a vast collection of mp3s in the early ‘00s – how pointless can that activity really be?
On the one hand, it now seems like a completely senseless thing. On the other hand, it definitely made sense back then, and you definitely felt the value and usefulness of your actions while organizing your music collection. After all, the mere fact that our lives will end sooner or later should, by the same logic, devalue literally everything we do.
#13
Spent two years trying to get the wrong person to love me and stop accusing me of cheating on her all the time. Turns out she was projecting her actions onto me and to this day doesn't believe she was being emotionally a*****e.
#14
Manually editing ID3 tags on my entire MP3 collection back in the mid-2000s.
Sven Horlemann 3 months ago
I got +5000 CDs, digitalized to FLAC everything, including vinyl. All tags are up to date. I listen mostly to the FLAC, while having the CD or vinyl besides me. I love it. I would never compromise on the tags. Then again, I am German. What do you expect?
Okay, and now I actually offer you something that you can later include in the list of senseless activities. Yes, I suggest you read all three dozen of these stories from different people, like the ones you enjoy the most, and maybe share your own tale in the comments. After all, why not - if you have time and inspiration?
#16
I spent a few hours drawing the complete blueprint of a choose your own adventure book by going back and forth and finding all possible 400 steps and how they're intertwined.
I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and learned a lot about how they're structured, but in the end it was completely useless and a waste of my time.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 3 months ago
No, you got a sense of accomplishment from it. Therefore not a waste of time.
#17
Spent an entire afternoon color coding my to do list then forgot to do any of it.
Alan Jay Weiner 3 months ago
Tomorrow you can reorder it and change priorities. Just remember to put "reorder and change priorities" as a top-priority item so you have a task to mark "done".
#18
Arguing with my parents. Literally about anything. Answer: No.
SchadenFreudian Psychology 3 months ago
That’s why I usually didn’t. I just became very sneaky.
#19
Spent 3 hours cleaning my email inbox, only to get 20 new emails the next hour 😭.
#20
Scrolling through Netflix for an hour only to rewatch The Office for the 12th time.
#21
Gaming. I used to treat it like it was a full time job. Trying to get achievements and s**t. Then I realized I had all maxed out skills in games but not in real life so I replaced it with coding. I still game but nowhere near as much.
Twitter. I used to doom scroll Twitter a lot. Then I was tired of the unsolicited p**n and toxic environment, so I stopped. Yes, Reddit can be the same way, but at least with Reddit, you get to pick the cesspool you want to swim in.
SchadenFreudian Psychology 3 months ago
The less time I spend on social media, the happier I am. It used to be fun. Now it’s just a chore.
#22
Hand-pulling invasive mint from the yard. I didn't want to k**l my native plants, but after many weekends spent hunched over in the garden pulling new sprouts I ended up smothering the whole thing with the heavy-duty plastic w**d barrier.
#23
Arguing against people who aren’t open minded.
Sven Horlemann 3 months ago
I stop the moment I understand someone is not listening. Because if you are not listening why should I talk? I got better things to do instead. Like looking out the window in the garden.
#24
Moved into a new house and the back lawn was pretty nice but noticed the lawn and weeds growing up the fence on all three sides so I assumed they had mowed the lawn and didn’t edge it. I watered that lawn for 2 weeks before I noticed it was fake.
Lee Gilliland 3 months ago
Think you should have noticed, we don't mow our lawn until it bloody well needs it.
#25
Spent countless hours every spring and summer weekend for years fighting back honeysuckle, kudzu and bamboo, fertilizing and weeding my lawn. Finally came to the realization that none of it mattered, it was always going to grow back from all three neighbors yards. Now AI just run it over with the mower and ignore whatever is left..
Multa Nocte 3 months ago
AI can now mow your lawn? I guess it has more uses than I had realised.
#26
Deleting stuff on my phone to make room for the next upgrade. !!!! Gah! There’s still no room!
#27
Spent an hour making a workout plan, then celebrated by not working out.
Serena Myers 3 months ago
Cleaning the cupboard under the sink, I forgot my limited options for getting up without having something to hold onto, and I had sat on a pouffe, and so had to crawl to the stairlift to get myself upright again. Workouts are not an option for me. Pouffe meaning a cushioned footstool, by the way.
#29
I bought an existing business the first of June and moved it to a new location. I spent 3 months counting and organizing inventory, 10+ hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Found out last week, the spreadsheets I had from the previous owner and the software I used in my own count were not 100% compatible with the new POS system. I have spent the last week and will be spending many more, recounting and entering EVERYTHING again.
This was not anything I could have predicted and it's a coding issue. So, not much can be done except to give myself a few minutes to cry and go through it all.
Apatheist Account2 3 months ago
Export to a low-level common ASCII format (eg csv, or whatever the new system reads) then import.
#30
Back in 2009 or 2010, there was this website that just launched, called Lockerz.
For everyone that you referred to the website that signed up (it was free) you got points. Get enough points, and you can redeem them for free stuff like video games during their first release.
So I signed up like 150 people. Mostly random internet people who were trying to do the same thing I was doing, and some people who I personally knew.
When the first release window came, the website crashed from heavy traffic, so I was unable to redeem my points. 2nd and 3rd release window as well.
It was then that I realized that it was all just one big scam to get people to sign up for their website. I wasted hours getting people signed up for that stupid site. .
#31
Scrolling Reddit.
#32
Remaking my town in Minecraft, used Google maps measuring with a virtual protractor. It was going good and actually accurate. I'd make 2 points then to get a straight line id dangle a weight on a rubber band over my screen, keep it lined up and place blocks accordingly.
I mapped out several roads, where I live and houses around me, our entire lake was mapped and filled in... Just got burnt out. Probably spent a couple hundred hours, just relaxing watching YouTube as I mapped.
Lee Gilliland 3 months ago
A friend of mine spent FIVE YEARS reproducing all the Harry Potter locations in WOW.
#34
Sorting my kid’s Legos by color.
He has thousands of pieces. My thinking was if they were better organized (vs being mixed in one big bin) he’d be more willing to play with them because pieces would be easier to find. He rarely plays with them and when he does, all 12 or so bins are strewn around and pieces are haphazardly thrown back into any bin when done.
Rick Murray 3 months ago
Sorting by colour is no good. It needs to be sorted by type. One block, two block, three block. THEN it will be easier to find stuff. Doing it by colour, you're effectively doing the haphazard strewing on purpose because the piece SIZE means a lot more than the piece COLOUR.
#35
My bachelor's degree.
Janissary35680 3 months ago
No, mine has been useful. Very useful even though I'm doing almost nothing associated with with the stuff I studied, simply because it gave me a solid foundation to grow on. What was a waste though was the 10 weeks I spent attempting to become a student again and going for a master's, having lived and worked independently for three years after graduation.
What do you think ?
Rick Murray 3 months ago
Sometimes, when heading home from work, I'd wonder "what was the point of what I just did?".
Ol' Stevie 3 months ago
Fighting in Afghan under control of successive incompetent yank presidents and generals who can't tell their a**e from their elbow.
Forrest Hobbs 3 months ago
Ol' Stevie: it might turn out to be less pointless than it currently looks. Maybe... The Taliban are back in charge and worse than ever - *BUT* there's a new generation of educated women who can connect with each other. All that smartphone stuff. Things are likely to look a bit better 25 years from now - I hope... 😬 (look, any government which prevents women training as midwives and so denies women care in childbirth is a government that's heading for extinction) Meanwhile: I'm a Brit and I'm really quite annoyed at the way my government has been failing to look after those Afghans who were persuaded to work with or fight with British forces only to be abandoned when our lot withdrew.
Load More Replies... Rick Murray 3 months ago
Sometimes, when heading home from work, I'd wonder "what was the point of what I just did?".
Ol' Stevie 3 months ago
Fighting in Afghan under control of successive incompetent yank presidents and generals who can't tell their a**e from their elbow.
Forrest Hobbs 3 months ago
Ol' Stevie: it might turn out to be less pointless than it currently looks. Maybe... The Taliban are back in charge and worse than ever - *BUT* there's a new generation of educated women who can connect with each other. All that smartphone stuff. Things are likely to look a bit better 25 years from now - I hope... 😬 (look, any government which prevents women training as midwives and so denies women care in childbirth is a government that's heading for extinction) Meanwhile: I'm a Brit and I'm really quite annoyed at the way my government has been failing to look after those Afghans who were persuaded to work with or fight with British forces only to be abandoned when our lot withdrew.
Load More Replies...
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