You are experiencing alienation. Your work is driven by motivations that you can't relate to. You are being pulled around by decisions you don't agree with and

You are experiencing alienation. Your work is driven by motivations that you can't relate to. You are being pulled around by decisions you don't agree with and you have meetings for reasons you can't even conceive of. Naturally, it is easier to perform some work if you understand and agree with its intent and the way it's executed, or if it's indeed your own choice what to do and how to go about it. You will never fully experience this as a wage worker taking commands from a manager taking commands from a boss taking commands from another boss taking commands from a board of owners motivated by their own profit, but perhaps work will seem more meaningful in a smaller company where you have more influence on decision making. Depending on culture you may also be able to take a bit more charge. Demand to know a clear agenda in advance of meetings, decline meetings that don't have an agenda that's relevant to your work and insist that the agenda is followed during meetings. Impart on your manager that your time is being wasted when it is.