The best minds of my generation

18 points by perseusprime11 ↗ HN
The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to manipulate people into buying things they don't need.

This is a modified version of "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make me click on ads." My attempt was to make this more direct at the intent of clicking on ads.

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> into buying things they don't need

with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like - George Carlin

Awesome. Here you go:

The best minds of my generation are manipulating people into buying things they don't need with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like

That's a natural extension of "software is eating the world".

The cost of experimenting with a small team making offers on the internet is small, but the potential returns are enormous. You can afford to have 100 offers rejected because when you find that 1 offer that catches on it really, really catches on.

The best minds recognize the cost/benefit analysis.

More like highly privileged rich kids from Stanford and MIT are thinking about how to manipulate people into buying things they don't need.

The best minds can't be swayed from their dreams and goals. Otherwise were they truly the best minds to begin with?

You can be extremely talented and have no dreams or goals.
Surely best does not only mean talent
No, they are building amazing software, infrastructure & services.

They are being paid by people who want to sell things.

Perhaps the best minds are thinking about the challenges of teaching middle school special education in Detroit or how to deliver basic healthcare in East Africa. Are the minds of marketers better? Really?