Make something that doesn’t matter

Why you need a totally pointless passion project [Existential Explorer: Part 6]

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The Way of Work explores stories of where we fit in the world of work. This is part of the Existential Explorer series:

Part 1: From Businessman to ‘Existential Explorer’
Part 2: The Open Frontier of Meaning
Part 3: What You Need is a Midlife Crisis
Part 4: Total Addressable Meaning
Part 5: just kidding… work actually is the meaning of life!

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In the absurd, we may find meaning.

I’ve always wanted to write for The Onion. Ever since my parents bought Our Dumb Century, I’ve envied their ability to say something blatantly ridiculous, and still land uncomfortably close to the truth. Spoiler: my thesis is that’s how passion projects work, as well.

Here’s a classic example:

Source: The Onion

Another fun fact is that in high school I received the superlative “Most Sarcastic.” Other people got stuff like “Most Likely to Succeed” or “Best Smile.” Instead, I got one of the throwaway categories. It’s probably like winning an Oscar for “Sound Mixing.”

But honestly? I still consider it my proudest achievement. More than any professional or personal succ…

Sorry, honey, I mean you and the kids are my greatest accomplishment!¹

That partially explains why I went off the deep-end last week and wrote an offensive, heretical satire about the meaning of life told via an afterlife bureaucracy. Even though it was absurd. Especially since it was absurd.

just kidding... work actually is the meaning of life!

I know it may land me a spot in Hell (supposedly a tight community btw). But it was worth the price (though I may regret it later for an eternity). Maybe my mom, a retired pastor, can put in a good word for me. Because Very-Serious-Artists like yours truly must push the boundaries of convention, speak truth through our craft, blah blah blah... while others look on uncomfortably wondering: what’s wrong with him?!

Here’s the point: I tried something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. It was a tiny, little thing. A project within a project. Something utterly pointless that probably goes nowhere.

But it gave me life! That’s the paradox: sometimes the more absurd it seems, the more meaningful it can become.²

I made no money (in fact, I lost a few confused readers). And a prestigious publication, like The Onion, hasn’t called me (yet). Apparently, I’m the primary audience for my own jokes. But I still had more fun writing it than most things I’ve ever done. And it opened my eyes to new opportunities – maybe I’ll write some more fiction or more failed attempts at humor. Who knows.

At some point, you need to realize that no one will recruit you to do your own thing.

No one asked me to start a newsletter. No one asked me to dig into meaning. And no one asked me to write about a performance review in purgatory, making nuanced, yet undoubtedly clever critiques about our work-oriented society.

That’s the point, folks.

The Way of Work is my passion project. It will probably never be a financial success; though for some reason, me making money from it would validate its existence to you. But it allows me to do all sorts of weird stuff: examine my past, explore the edges of the map, talk to interesting people, and, occasionally, screw around.

Maybe the truth lies a bit outside the obvious and into the absurd. Things that may seem like they barely matter on the surface can be, in fact, exactly where we find what matters most of all.

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Why you need a “Passion Project”

I’ve written before about how meaning is an open frontier — something we’re no longer handed, but now have to seek and shape for ourselves.

If I could prescribe one step to anyone feeling stuck, hollow, or burnt out, it would be a Passion Project. One way to stake your claim in the unknown.

Not a sabbatical. Not a career pivot. Not a startup. Just a project. Something weird, small, and unnecessary… except to you.

I think a lot of people, like me, need a place to put all the peculiar stuff bouncing around inside their heads. A passion project gives it somewhere to go; a place to channel what feels like excess energy. And it can be one of the most tangible first steps toward finding more meaning in your life.

Yes, I know how this sounds: privileged and preachy (the worst combination). “Must be nice!” But stay with me.

During my own messy transition, I received some advice from a mentor, Anne Loehr.³ Her brother created a coffee-table book profiling immigrants in America. It was a passion project, one thing within a busy, accomplished life as a lawyer and professor.

Source: Green Card Stories | Buy on Amazon

The lesson was this: I didn’t need to find that singular, all-consuming purpose that would propel me through the rest of time. Instead of putting enormous pressure on myself to answer vomit-inducing questions, like “what is the meaning of life?” I could simply ask myself: “what's a project I’d like to try?"

And so: The Way of Work was born.

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Meaning won’t make itself

What I’m calling “passion projects” is what we typically call: “hobbies” or “volunteering.”

Unfortunately, our culture treats these things as optional or indulgent. The kind of thing that’s nice to do… if you have time.

But for many people, they’re the only place where they feel like themselves. It’s the thing no one asked them to do, that no one’s grading them on. While the rest of our lives are filled with obligations, passion projects are an outlet to let the real you breathe. One of the last places people can feel alive and express something that feels real. For some, it may even be the first place they encounter true meaning outside of work.

For me, that includes poking around strange topics most others won’t touch (see What You Need is a Midlife Crisis), and exploring them from a new lens – whether that be from an alternate perspective, or even, in the case of last week’s adventure, an alternate reality.

And here’s where I take a hard right turn away from what everyone else is selling: don’t expect to make money from a passion project (at least for a while). Influencers corrupt the concept by turning every passion into a monetizable hustle. The seductive promise of: “turn what you love into passive income.”

Yeah, right! Selling you on a dream is their passion project.

I also used to believe that if something didn’t make money, it didn’t really count. Not kidding. It was a dumb mental block that prevented so much progress across so many domains. My brain would go:

“Pursue a venture with zero money-making potential?
But… how will it be valued? How will I know if it’s working?
Aren’t I a serious businessman? Who am I if it doesn’t make money?”

Or, I believed, projects needed to be big and life-changing. Something impressive that would get strangers to care about me.

It’s taken my own exploration to realize that sometimes, the best things are the ones that make zero sense on paper. But they matter to you anyway. And in my experience, that’s where real meaning hides.

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One small step for you,
one giant leap for meaning

One last story…

An old co-worker, Brian Tajlili, is a Very-Serious-And-Important Person. He’s a senior actuary at a health insurance company. It’s a great career, but no offense to Brian, it’s not the kind of thing they end up making a documentary about (unless he does something very bad…).

I’ll always remember Brian because he’s the first guy to ever coach me through VLOOKUP tables in Excel. Which, as I recall, I royally screwed up for a major client. Sorry again, Brian!

Recently, Brian tried his hand at speculative fiction. No, it’s not the first thing you’d expect from an actuary. But, to his credit, he submitted an essay into a contest… and won first prize. You can read his prize-winning story: Faulty Medication

Source: Society of Actuaries, Speculative Fiction Content & Art Expo

The $400 reward won’t change his life or allow him to quit his job (at least, I wouldn’t advise it). But I’ll bet it felt good. A tiny, unexpected vote of confidence for trying something new.

Or maybe he’ll never do it again. That’s fine too. Not everything needs to become a career or lifelong passion. Can we stop putting so much damn pressure on everything?⁴

That’s the power of passion projects: one small, self-directed way to try something “pointless.” And, in the process, maybe find something meaningful.

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Make it anyway

Let’s not lie to each other: passion projects often require resources that not everyone has. Of course you don’t have the time. Or energy. Or money. Or <insert whatever>.

I’m lucky. I could afford to launch The Way of Work without the need to make money. Yet. Eventually, I’ll try to monetize you. Especially the segment of my audience that buys Malcolm Gladwell books.

So yeah, you might discount everything I’ve said because I’m not you. But here’s a strange fact I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older: few people, even in a place of security, pursue their own passion projects. They put them off, waiting until a day where they’re finally granted permission (they won’t). Or lose the fear (they won’t). Or can ensure their project won’t suck (it will).

Even people with all the resources in the world still find all kinds of rationale for not doing something they really want to do. I’m not saying everyone can do a passion project. I am saying more people could, and should.

Because I’ve found them to be one of the most powerful ways to access personal meaning. They can be a big, long-term commitment like The Way of Work is for me. In-between things. Or a side quest, like Anne’s brother or Brian.

This isn’t a pitch to quit your job. Or to throw away your life in search of reinvention. Just to try something. Anything… Join a band. Create an interview series. Restore an old home. Play board games competitively.⁵

It can sound stupid, or weird, or temporary, or too personal to share. But I guarantee you: no one will ever ask you to do it.

If it goes nowhere, so what? But if you’re lucky, it might become your own little award.

Like your favorite Onion article: a touch outside the obvious and into the absurd, but still, somehow closer to the truth.

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📚 Further Exploration: For those curious enough to continue the exploration…

• The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus (how even in the absurd, we can find meaning)

⍰ Question: what’s a project you’d try if money didn’t matter?
👀 Next up: what if mastery doesn’t bring you meaning?
🙏 My Ask: If this essay meant something to you, pass it along, ❤️ or 🔄.

1. Quiz: which sentence was sarcastic? 😏

2. When I say “absurd,” I don’t just mean silly or random. I mean the way the writer, Albert Camus, did: that gap between our deep need for meaning and the world’s refusal to offer it neatly.

3. She was also the one to recommend I move out of the country: The Value of Disappearing

4. Brian tells me that he's done creative writing for a long time, but has trouble finding the space to make it a habit, and hopes he can get back into it again.

5. All real examples from people I know.