> slap together temperature converters and insecure twitter clones

because those "best programmers" don't want to be making temperature converters nor twitter clones (unless they're paid mega bucks). This enables the low paid "worst" programmers to do those jobs for peanuts.

It's an acceptable outcome imho.

Let's assume that I'm closer to best programmers than worst programmers, for a second; I definitely will build a temperature converter, at my usual hourly rate. I don't think we should consider any task "beneath us", doing so detaches us from reality, makes us entitled, and ultimately stumps our growth

But do we actually need more temperature converters? Maybe it would be better if they were hard to make such that people didn't waste their time, and the bad programmers went out and did some yard work.

I think it might be more urgent for the star-AI'd (ha) programmers to go out and touch grass. Do we really need more people in that pile right now? There is a lot of mundane but interesting/challenging work out there, humming along beneath the hype cycle of the day. It may not pay 300k or satisfy utopian urges, but then again, you should probably be suspicious if someone hands you fistfuls of money and tells you you're saving the world