What I see is that the most capable people I know are working on making ads more efficient, one of the most visible latest innovations is people delivering food on bicycles, and don't even get me started about crypto.
So that's what I'm asking - what is there to be optimistic about? Say, in the 1950s you could be optimistic about all the home automation tech coming out, like dishwashers, washing machines, cars etc. getting better and more affordable. I find it hard to get excited about a future of startups where for a small subscription fee they send you some rubbish every month to exploit your dopamine reaction to novelty and surprise. A lot of 'innovation' seems to actually make our lives worse lately, and it seems like a trend that will continue.
Again you focus on what you see. I wanted to point out that you might want to think on what you don't see or don't know.
Like all biochemical F500 companies or energy companies - do you happen to know any biochem engineers? I don't know any.
If you take look at F500 list it is not like Apple, Google or Facebook hire all the people, they hire something around 150k people each and there are a lot other companies that hire around the same amount of people.
There is no evidence that people at Pfizer are somehow less smart than ones working at Apple :)
I would never let any software developer run any part of oil refinery :)
So that's what I'm asking - what is there to be optimistic about? Say, in the 1950s you could be optimistic about all the home automation tech coming out, like dishwashers, washing machines, cars etc. getting better and more affordable. I find it hard to get excited about a future of startups where for a small subscription fee they send you some rubbish every month to exploit your dopamine reaction to novelty and surprise. A lot of 'innovation' seems to actually make our lives worse lately, and it seems like a trend that will continue.