You can trivialize almost any profession by stating it reductively. "All we do is put boxes on a page, or change the color of the boxes." OK, well all a farmer

You can trivialize almost any profession by stating it reductively. "All we do is put boxes on a page, or change the color of the boxes." OK, well all a farmer does is dig some dirt, and sometimes put some plant bits into it or pull some out. All most doctors do is talk to patients and sometimes give them some pills. All a soldier does is point guns and pull triggers. All a factory worker does is pretend to be a robot eight hours a day. Etc. I don't admire the guy for failing to adequately state the value he's bringing to the table. More to the point: most of society is by his estimation engaging in trivial bullshit. Faux intellectual software developers like to self-flagellate. Sure. We work on stupid stuff. But what do they think toy makers, the entire entertainment and financial industries, fashion, much of the auto industry, and even the majority of the housing industry are busy doing? They're all selling products that people don't need and probably won't make them much happier or better off. Don't like it? Go be a hermit. The story of the twentieth century was the pursuit of largely pointless (from a well-being perspective) excellence. That will probably remain the case for the rest of human history, since we already have almost everything we need for well-being built in, and the small remaining set is really cheap and no longer economically significant. (I guess this is ultimately the point of the article . . . sort of . . . but I'm so over the trope in the first section that I just had to react to it.)