I believe, as a ground truth, that good engineering requires working in the real world. Silicon valley guys do not. They believe their responsibility start and end at the computer.
I understand this sounds extreme, I think so too, but it is the only explanation that explains their fascination with "long-termism". A philosophy that any harm now is justified if it has even a .1% chance of doing something very good in the long term.
Even then, our descendants, who'd finally have the privilege to live in that faraway future that we sacrificed everything in the present for - they'd also be obligated to treat their present as a disposable resource in service of an even further away future.
If you took the "philosophy" at face value, it would actually guarantee that the entire future of humanity will be miserable. But we'll colonize space and number in the trillions. Yay...
It would be one thing if we were talking about a fresh out of college newbie. But Lavingia was employee #2 at Pinterest and founded Gumroad. It appears he learned absolutely nothing in either place.