I mostly agree with you — a lot of the things Silicon Valley startups are building today are clearly aimed at people just like the people that work in SV (well-off, white, male, whatever). The smugness with which they approach things like marketing can be amazing. They talk like they’re changing the world when all they’re doing is making other well-off peoples’ lives slightly more convenient.

On the other hand…I think that’s great. People should do whatever they want, if they can make a living doing it. They don’t have an obligation to work on world-changing ideas (whatever that means). It’s hard to argue otherwise while being consistent, I think.

If you buy that logic then I don’t see how it only applies to situations like:

1. Company A is doing something frivolous like social networking for farm animals*
2. Company B is doing something awesome for humanity, like building electric vehicles
3. I work at Company A
4. Therefore I should quit my job and try to work for Company B

It should also apply to situations like:

1. Company A is doing something frivolous like social networking for farm animals
2. Company B is doing something awesome for humanity, like building electric vehicles
3. I work at Company B
4. I should still quit my job because I could be working on something more awesome, like curing cancer or preventing an asteroid from blowing us up and ending civilization

In other words, if all the problems we can work on are organized along a continuum, that same logic dictates that someone who works on curing diabetes should quit their job because they could be working on something less frivolous, like curing cancer or heart disease. Sure, true, but we actually want both of those things! We even want people working on trivial bullshit for the 1%!

There are lots of things we don’t need that are still good for us to have. Most of what you do for fun is probably on that list. But a lot of things on that list are also on the list of things that make us human, or that give life value beyond just “how can I maximize my utility for the human race during the 80 years of my life.” That’s not enough for most people. We’re just not wired that way.

*Don’t steal my idea.