An engineer who uses writing to articulate and order his thoughts.

A job without a purpose kills a man's soul

It is a known fact that many people derive meaning to their lives through work, doing something that is useful to others, or has a purpose higher than oneself, provides us with sentiments like pride and usefulness; take a brief look through human history and see how far people were willing to go to achieve this feelings, it speaks to us, and tells us that contrary to the popular belief that work is just work, it has been one of the strongest driving forces that has led humanity to where it is today, and that denying the need for a purposeful job is dangerous, as it can lead many to live unfulfilling lives, or worse.

But, I need to bring money to the table. I do too, and also know that the probabilities of me landing a job at a company that has a purpose higher than myself, like for example SpaceX are slim to none; reality is that most if not every job that you will have now or in the future, serves a superfluous purpose, and has no real meaning. Faced with this hell-on-earth type of scenario, the only thing I've found useful is, to start thinking about my job as a temporal enabler for the thing that contributes a great deal of purpose and meaning to my life.

New problems require us to step into the unknown, gather knowledge and rebuild our mental models, the approach I decided to follow is by no stretch of the imagination an optimal one, but, if you find yourself wrestling with a job that subtracts purpose and meaning from your life, reframe how you think about it, aim at the highest thing that is within your scope, and use it as a force to help you get there.