non-usefulness

alternative nonusefulness

1. uncountableThe property of not being useful; inutility.

   For some time intense pressure has been brought to bear upon the Government from Nonconformist quarters to push the bill through, even to the extent of making an issue of the usefulness or non-usefulness of the House of Lords as a legislative body.

   1906 November 18, “The Progress of Events in Foreign Countries […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   We are gratified to find that the chief design of the meeting now called for, is to take steps for demanding a “deed of settlement,” a determination we have long labored to impress on the minds of the shareholders as the great necessity to the proper direction of the affairs, and the solving of the problem as to the usefulness or non-usefulness of the Association to the colony.

   1847 January 16, The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, volume I (New Series), number 3, Perth, W.A.: Elizabeth Macfaull, →OCLC, page [2], column 3

   Wallace's way of loading up this indistinct area with scrupulous depiction made a lot of people feel less lonely; meanwhile, the possibility that being the depicter made Wallace feel more lonely has become a widely circulated armchair-shrink's allegory for the non-usefulness of self-consciousness.

   2012 March 9, Jonathan Lethem, “Jonathan Lethem on being a self-conscious writer”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2014