Smart people, why work there?

When I was in university, I had the chance to go on exchange to Yale for a year. As you would expect from an Ivy League university, I met many smart and motivated people there. But one thing I remember being struck by at the time was how in demand fields like banking, finance and consulting. So many students competed to score internships with these firms and I suppose many of them went on to build careers in these sectors. I couldn't help but feel a sense of loss on behalf of the world — did the world need so much of its talent clustered around these firms? It's not like this has really changed now. We just added more jobs like tech/AI to the mix. My unpopular take (?) is that all these "ex-Meta/insert amoral company" types have had to close one or both eyes to enjoy the perks and salaries of their jobs. For instance, it's common knowledge how social media companies engineer to make their content more addictive for adults and children alike, despite knowing of the consequences. AI…