[paulsutter]

Making a blanket statement like "advertising is bad" is like saying that commerce is bad.

We all agree that bad advertising is annoying. We all agree that most advertising today is bad advertising. But that's no reason to stop working on advertising.

EDIT: Advertising is a $600B a year industry. It isn't going to disappear. Improving advertising seems like a good goal to me. Yes there are loftier goals, but this is a good one.

EDIT: I'm fascinated by the downvotes. Could someone comment on how I've violated the guidelines here?

[hapless]

You discussed none of the points in the article. This is likely to result in downvotes. (Did you even read it ?)

[paulsutter]

Specific points in the article that I'm responding to:

"Please stop working on ads. Pick an unsolved problem instead. Not only it’s potentially better for the world, but also you’re more likely to raise funding and cash out. Oh, and if you’re an investor, don’t touch ad-based stuff. If you do, you’ll be very uncool"