I don't have a problem with someone tinkering with coffee cup designs if it gives them enjoyment. I just find the pretense that it's going to make a non-neglig

I don't have a problem with someone tinkering with coffee cup designs if it gives them enjoyment. I just find the pretense that it's going to make a non-negligible difference to the environment puzzling and intellectually dishonest. What's wrong with a feel-good distraction? Instead of implementing "Hello World" in 120 languages, why not tinker with papercup designs? Why not do something actually meaningful? There's an awesome talk by Richard Hamming on pg's website (http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html), where he recounts: And I started asking, ``What are the important problems of your field?'' And after a week or so, ``What important problems are you working on?'' And after some more time I came in one day and said, ``If what you are doing is not important, and if you don't think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?'' I wasn't welcomed after that; I had to find somebody else to eat with!