phrase requests - Term for "will consume time and almost certainly yield nothing"


Can anyone point to an eloquent word or term that means "will consume time and almost certainly yield nothing"?


Could be used in response to:



I'm going to have one of the developers contact Apple and ask them to add a new feature to Apple Maps.



The effort has a tiny chance of being successful, but if you knew how the sausage was made, you'd know that asking the question isn't even worth the time.


At first I thought "invading Russia" might have been apt, but that kind of implies that you're going in with a lot of firepower only to slowly lose and retreat. It's also competitive in nature. That's more more appropriate if someone said "I think we can take Amazon.com head on."


The only other thing that came to mind was "mining for unobtanium". I'm open for better, though.



Answer



"Exercise in futility" is an idiomatic term that describes that scenario.


Definition: a useless action that cannot succeed



Response to: "I'm going to have one of the developers contact Apple and ask them to add a new feature to Apple Maps."


"That would be an exercise in futility!"



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