We’ve really wasted an incredible amount of talent-hours over last couple decades. Imagine if we’d worked on, like, climate change or something instead of ad platforms.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/quote...
That all being said, as humans have free will, imagining what we "could have done" if we just _forced_ everyone to do something different is flirting with fascism.
I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the root of it. If people instead of buying things from ads were looking for the best ways to purchase offsets for CO2 emissions, then the best minds would be working on that problem.
Governmental incentives and carbon taxes can make more jobs in CO2, but expecting individual citizens to solve a collective action problem is doomed.
At the same time, I think it is fair to ask people to look at what they're doing for/to the world and decide if that's something that fits their values. 300k salary is nice, but almost certainly not something you need
I’m on board with solving this at the governmental level FWIW. I support stronger anti-trust enforcement for example (and not just targeting tech).
But yea govt level would solve it much better
The only exception is people who’ve managed to sneak their way into positions where they don’t contribute anything to the company. Those people are doing society a favor by wasting Facebook’s money.
The whole Metaverse bet at Meta is also plausibly a 10s-of-$b bet that isn’t going to drive the ad flywheel, though I’m sure they hope it is. My impression is Zuck would be ok with just having a VR platform even if it’s generating revenue from not-ads.