I could be mistaken, but I think that line is a reference to an interview with Jeff Hammerbacher:

Hammerbacher looked around Silicon Valley at companies like his own, Google (GOOG), and Twitter, and saw his peers wasting their talents. "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads," he says. "That sucks."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b42250609...

Which, I hope not coincidentally, echoes Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

It strikes me as a self-contradictory statement. If these minds are so great, why are they working on such mundane things? There's more to this equation than raw intelligence. Being one of the "best minds" also requires experience, drive, and the wisdom to apply one's talents usefully.

And that's been discussed here earlier today:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5087065

However, I would be willing to forgive even the best minds for taking a high paying job with good benefits at Google or Facebook. These are hard decisions to make, and a hard world to live in with ideals.

That being said, I'd rather the energy and treasure of our society go towards things other than consumerism.

It's also a reference to the opening line of Howl, of course: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381

I don't know if that's what Jeff intended or not, but a lot of readers are going to have a strong association with the phrase "the best minds of my generation."

Perhaps the most laughable assumption of all.

It also assumes those terrible choices aren't stepping stones, enabling these great minds to undertake the meaningful work Raganwald demands, once they have acquired more capabilities and capital.

Stepping stones akin to Elon Musk and Paypal. He's now commercializing the electric car (Tesla Motors), running a solar company (SolarCity) and the most grandiose, SpaceX.

Well, it's worth noting that Musk claims that PayPal was also a major move to improve the world, and I think the claim is credible. And before that he did Zip2, which is about as impactful as Google. Which, btw, is fucking impactful.

To attract new blood, it's a useful myth to perpetuate. Repeat the mantra enough times and people start believing it.

Reminds me of investment bankers who thought that shuffling pieces of paper made them 'Masters of the Universe'.