> In the long run, creating more understanding of the physical world is probably more universally valuable to human flourishing than the far more parochial 'mak

> In the long run, creating more understanding of the physical world is probably more universally valuable to human flourishing than the far more parochial 'make money number go up' type of work lapsed physicists slinging JavaScript in the MAGMA[1] mines are doing for us now. If nothing else, it creates new and more interesting ways of making number go up. I don't know that much about quants and trading, but I do know something about startups. Ten years ago, most of the startups I encountered were pets.com 2.0 — with crazy ideas that were supposed to change the world but turned out just being batshit crazy. But now, most startups I encounter are about doing the same thing that existed for a long time, but more effectively. And a lot of them succeed. It's not exciting, but this JS code often replaces a lot of manual clerk labour, and allowing the same people to do more. It's certainly not the zero-sum game OP is trying to make it look like. It's exactly the kind of grinding, boring work on everyday things that make humanity better as a whole.