And I’m using ‘Silicon Valley’ as shorthand, not a geographic descriptor.

Last week, a lot of people were really angry about this story which describes a tech startup that wants to put videoscreens on shopping carts so you can be bombarded with ads while shopping. Needless to say, people were not happy about this–and rightly so.

Lots people wondered why something this stupid and annoying gets funded, when there are more worthwhile funding opportunities (that will likely result in less property destruction by angry shoppers). But I think that misses a critical point. I haven’t figured out a pithy way to put this, but we need to redeploy tech workers to do useful things, such as moving the technological level of local, state, and the federal government into the 21st century, never mind 2024. Remember how, during the pandemic, unemployment benefits in D.C. (and other localities) had to be accessed through Internet Explorer (really), which most people don’t have on their phones–and D.C. libraries which do have terminals with were closed due to the pandemic, so people couldn’t file for benefits.

Admittedly, working for various branches of government is much less lucrative–and no possibility for vesting shares and so on. But somehow we need to deploy resources–which includes people–away from tech titans who are fascinated with Smell-o-vision and towards areas that desperately need this expertise.