Until they achieve this, they waste themselves and their true creative powers on useless attempts to make themselves more comfortable by inappropriate means. T-2. III. 5.

在臻至此境之前，任何无谓而且不当的安心法门，都是浪费自己的生命和真正的创造力。

youdao

To him this was not useless, because it didn't serve the state.

这对彼得大帝来说无所功用,因为这对俄国没有任何贡献

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

When are you deemed old enough to know what it is you would like to study and don't get useless figures shoved down your throat by people who seem to think that everyone in the world cares about politics and economics so they all will study it, regardless of whether they are studying art?

BBC: The A-level student

Yang Yeng, a shopkeeper selling batteries, candles, and flashlights on the street in front of his still darkened shop in the East Village, said his T-Mobile phone was useless in the area.

WSJ: Outages Expose Wireless Carriers' Backup Plans

Ms Brown from Sense about Science says that if the regulator doesn't think "continuing to market useless homeopathic travel 'vaccinations' for diphtheria, malaria, polio, typhoid and encephalitis" and potentially putting lives at risk is not reckless then there's little point having regulation.

BBC: Cases dropped against malaria homeopaths