Why is life so meaningless?

As I read Chapter 11 I found an idea which I believed Dawkins contradicted himself. I read that intelligence couldn't be passed genetically from a survival machine to another.

"No matter how much knowledge of wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed to your children by genetic means." (Pg 23)

Later, I read the following (and had to Google the meaning of analogous).

"Cultural transmission is analogous to genetic transmission in that, although basically conservative, it can give rise to a form of evolution." (Pg. 189)

I now had to contradict myself. Dawkins wasn't saying culture could be transmitted, he was implying it could also cause changes! I do have doubts though, so if culture and intelligence can't be passed down, they can only from others right? After so many years of evolution, it seems logical that replicators would have learned how to pass intelligence and culture. Doesn´t it seem useless to spend so much time dedicated into learning just to unexpectedly die and lose all the your world and knowledge? Not even be able to pass it down to your successor survival machine? What a shame that life and knowledge is so meaningless.