Why are you talking about curing cancer or solving poverty? All he said was,
"Lately we have seen a plague of Next Better Widget ™ startups and bright minds all over the world solving frivolous problems that ultimately contribute nothing to the betterment of humanity as a whole."
This isn't a first-world versus big-problem dichotomy; this is just a matter of whether or not what you're working on is measurably benefiting anyone. If not, then yes, it might be a waste of talent.
These justifications are silly, anyway. How many people, in offices all over the world, are spending significant amounts of time doing something other than work? I don't mean taking the occasional ten-minute break, I mean spending half or more of their day on Facebook or other distractions. How much GDP worldwide is being consumed by this? How much human effort is being spent just clicking on something while staring at a screen?
How much more effort do we want to put into trying to maximize all that waste?
"Lately we have seen a plague of Next Better Widget ™ startups and bright minds all over the world solving frivolous problems that ultimately contribute nothing to the betterment of humanity as a whole."
This isn't a first-world versus big-problem dichotomy; this is just a matter of whether or not what you're working on is measurably benefiting anyone. If not, then yes, it might be a waste of talent.
These justifications are silly, anyway. How many people, in offices all over the world, are spending significant amounts of time doing something other than work? I don't mean taking the occasional ten-minute break, I mean spending half or more of their day on Facebook or other distractions. How much GDP worldwide is being consumed by this? How much human effort is being spent just clicking on something while staring at a screen?
How much more effort do we want to put into trying to maximize all that waste?