"At first, the inherent unimportance of these pursuits coupled with the grueling commitment required to attain them seem at odds: Why set a target and spend so much effort on something that doesn’t matter? But a good meaningless goal is an act of protest against the self-optimization hamster wheel. It subverts the cult of productivity by sneakily leveraging the tools of productivity."
In Praise of Pointless Goals
These achievements aren’t about productive self-improvement. They’re designed to make the pursuit of joy a deliberate practice.
theatlantic.com