Dostoyevsky said it best.

The estimable ants begin with the anthill, and they will probably end with the anthill, which does great honor to their consistency and trustworthiness. But man is a flighty deplorable creature, and, like a chess player, he may be fond only of the process of achieving the goal, rather than of the goal itself. And who knows (no one can vouch for that), perhaps the only goal toward which mankind is striving on earth consists of nothing but the continuity of the process of achieving....He is fond of striving toward achievement, but not so very fond of the achievement itself, and this is, naturally, terribly funny.

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, from Notes From Underground