This is sort of a tangent to this thread but I wanted to keep that discussion cleaner so I’m posting it here:
Atlas Shrugged quote:
“Francisco, what’s the most depraved type of human being?”
“The man without a purpose.”
Note that Francisco’s answer isn’t “a serial killer” or something like that (even though they would count as depraved and be someone who causes serious harm). Note also that one could lack a purpose and not harm others (someone who smokes marijuana all day could be harmless while lacking a purpose).
Having a purpose is about having something positive one wants to achieve in the world, not having the absence of a negative. You could reframe having a purpose as “absence of purposelessness” but I think that would miss the point. If your purpose is e.g. writing a novel, that’s a positive thing you want to create and bring into being. That’s your goal. Saying that you don’t want to not create a novel is just confusing.