> It is useful to appear useless in the eyes of those who intend to misuse us.

https://ctext.org/zhuangzi/tree-on-the-mountain

On the other hand, you could also end up like the goose who could not cackle, and so was eaten. Thus things are not always straightforward.

For whatever reason this reminded me of something attributed to Groucho Marx:

> I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member