There is a perennial conversation in tech circles about "trivial" versus "important" problems. Should you work on "trivial" problems like the cliched "yet another photo sharing app" or should you work on "real" and "significant" problems like climate change and inequality? There is no answer to this question, but there is a way to make the perennial conversation productive instead of futile. The trick is to recognize that "significance" and "importance" and "meaning" are manufacturable, rather than necessarily natural properties of an idea. Consider, for example, animated gifs and memes. They seem trivial. Let's make them significant.
The game of recalibrating ideas is to through the intent of the ideas in question: does it soothe and seduce, desire allegiance, or crave power? https://bewrong.substack.com/p/what-do-ideas-want https://bewrong.substack.com/p/what-do-ideas-want/comment/8265949