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."
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.