The issue isn't with the people, its with the products. Outside ML, there has literally been zero innovation on the tech front in the past decade or so. We all

The issue isn't with the people, its with the products. Outside ML, there has literally been zero innovation on the tech front in the past decade or so. We all got our internet phones, and the tech shifted into how to extract money from people (or sell people in the context of advertising) through these phones. The main goal became to do whatever it takes to get users, then monetize the user base, then sell to/get acquired by some random company with lots of cash to burn to expand their portfolio with another item that generates revenue. Then, after some time, monetization of the user base wasn't even a goal anymore. It was sufficient to just get users, which translated to companies valuation, which then translated into stock price that you can take to a bigger company and let them pay for additional development once they acquire the company. Ive met (and interviewed) plenty of smart people from SV as well. Most of their experience is something web adjacent. They talk about setting up distributed systems, building pipelines, automating stuff, all for a product that is in the end ultimately worthless to society - the value is all generated through hypothetical stock price in terms of how much someone would pay for this in the future. So these people all just pawn in the game perpetuated by the finance sector that only gives a fuck about a number. And they participate in it because of another number. We could all have much better lives if SV was about tech instead of numbers.