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Fortunately, it's also false, from what I can observe. I wouldn't pretend to know all the best minds of my generation, but I believe that I know a statisticall

Fortunately, it's also false, from what I can observe. I wouldn't pretend to know all the best minds of my generation, but I believe that I know a statistically meaningful sample. A few of them are working in finance, which does make me sad, but the vast majority of them are working on really cool stuff, both in academia and in industry. Only one of them is trying to get people to click ads. This isn't to say that there aren't some great minds working on getting people to click on ads, just that they represent a tiny fraction of the "best minds of our generation". Even if they were all working on "getting people to click on ads", I think that's still an improvement on "building the atomic bomb", which we could have said about a previous generation at one point in time. (And just like the bomb gave rise to some wonderful physics, I have no doubt that getting people to click on ads will lead to some wonderful insights into cognition, psychology and economics).

api 13y ago
I hope you're right, and that this perception just comes from startupdom. Actually, come to think of it, I think you probably are correct. But a more accurate quote would be "the most well paid best minds of my generation are busy getting people to click on ads." I do know of people doing incredibly cool stuff in industry and academia, and none of them are making what the ad-analytics and finance people are making. In many cases they are making a graduate stipend (read: vow of poverty) and have poor employment prospects post-graduation (if they actually want to use their degree).
- aswanson 13y ago
  At some point this has to bite us in the ass as a society. If the bulk of the economic reward is going to three-card molly finance bullshit, ad-clicking, and photo filters while cancer and material science researchers have to switch fields to eat, there has to be a day of reckoning.

api 13y ago

I hope you're right, and that this perception just comes from startupdom. Actually, come to think of it, I think you probably are correct. But a more accurate quote would be "the most well paid best minds of my generation are busy getting people to click on ads." I do know of people doing incredibly cool stuff in industry and academia, and none of them are making what the ad-analytics and finance people are making. In many cases they are making a graduate stipend (read: vow of poverty) and have poor employment prospects post-graduation (if they actually want to use their degree).

aswanson 13y ago
At some point this has to bite us in the ass as a society. If the bulk of the economic reward is going to three-card molly finance bullshit, ad-clicking, and photo filters while cancer and material science researchers have to switch fields to eat, there has to be a day of reckoning.