For the longest time I was someone who relied on external validation of whether my work was meaningful or not. Outside of saving lives or delivering children, most of the jobs that most people do are probably not that 'meaningful'.
I spent the last three years working for a narcissist, which meant that I got minimal external validation, even when I knew the work I was doing was valuable. I learned to reframe and appreciate the intrinsic value of my effort, especially when I knew that my effort was of high quality. It's an approach that works for me and I recommend it to other people.
For the last two years Singapore has had a hard closure of all eating establishments at 1030 - they will literally come and take your drink off of the table. For the last several months any and all background music has been banned in restaurants in case 'music causes people to speak more loudly and encourage the spread of covid "droplets"'.
What you said may have been true in the past, but it hasn't been true for a long time, and at this rate may never be true again.
