The scientific method. Don't look at the world through the lens of your knowledge. In fact, forget about the word knowledge. Replace it with "hypothesis".

The world is a lab. Shape it in ways which you think will prove your hypotheses false.

I was more thinking about how to get the people around me, who don't think like that automatically, to work with me on that process.

I can see and understand the pointlessness happening, which is a bit alienating when other people think they are doing hard important work and I think/know they aren't, and I need their buy in to avoid them asking me to also do things I know are pointless.

If I wanted to do pointless things (and I'm not sure I'm even capable of that) I could probably get paid a lot more by changing job, but I'd rather change my job to be less pointless, as it seems better for my mental health.

Aha. To some extent I think it's a hiring and/or organisational values thing. You need the right people to congratulate each other on the right types of work for it to be a long-term sustained thing.

There are also some more formalised versions of the scientific process applied to the workplace. Mike Rother's Improvement Kata come to mind.

Edit: also get good at negotiation! People are complicated and refuse help even when they obviously need it. Being a good negotiator ideally helps everyone.

Second edit: another thing is leading by example. That's been very powerful in my experience.

When you discover they’re solving the wrong problem after they’ve invested in their non-solution, people can get pretty defensive, too.