[throw10920]

That doesn't answer the question. I asked for, and I quote, "any particular non-trivial fraction of engineering talent has been wasted on ad algorithms, or that those are the "best and brightest", or that those people would have been doing other useful work if the ads didn't exist".

Your inability to provide evidence is suggestive that the evidence does not exist.

[asdf000333]

I'm not sure what else you want beyond my answer, maybe proof that these big tech companies have indeed been hiring bright engineers, but maybe you or someone else can find it on the Internet. I'm gonna go ahead and agree with Dig1t on this.

[throw10920]

> I'm not sure what else you want beyond my answer

It's not hard to see that your response does literally nothing to answer my question.

> I'm gonna go ahead and agree with Dig1t on this.

It's crystal clear that you don't have any evidence for the claim, so your opinion is meaningless.