The author does mention the "anti-advertising talk in the hacker world", but unfortunately he doesn't seem to be interested in addressing any of the arguments c

The author does mention the "anti-advertising talk in the hacker world", but unfortunately he doesn't seem to be interested in addressing any of the arguments commonly made. The "values" in the title just means "money" in context. This is an article about "extracting value" using advertising, and why advertising (as a business model) can be quite effective at this. It takes for granted that "extracting" the maximum "value" from "consumers" is intrinsically good for everyone involved. (I know, I'm overdoing the scare quotes, but I dislike this entire vocabulary). Obviously not all hackers have any problem with modern advertising; the top post on this discussion suggests that yes, this is where the money is, so you should consider directing your career path towards advertising if you're about to make the choice. This is a kind of hacking; look for the shortest distance between two points (self <-> money), and bridge that gap, however unconventional the jump may be. No need to create anything; just master the ways to influence the purchase decision process. Control the tipping point where people decide, yeah, maybe I should be buying some mousetraps just in case, and the mousetrap makers (good and bad) will beat a path to your door. I really hope anyone actually choosing between a career in advertising vs basically anything else reads a lot more than just this article, though.