There are a great number of greying or almost-greying engineers and other tech types who are part of a generation preceding the current "cool" generation.
This older generation of hackers and engineers got into the industry because the allure of building systems that made society a better place and benefited humanity broadly was a very powerful driver. For years and decades, this passion drove them to build the foundations of what we now know to be modern energy production, electronics, computing, and networking.
Dreams of taking civilization to the stars, of creating limitless energy sources, of using technology to empower oppressed people and bring others out of poverty drove many of this generation forward.
The reality? Masses upon masses of highly indebted hipsters sipping lattes, tweeting about a band they heard called "Shitdripper", on a device thousands of times more powerful than anything available to the NSA a generation ago, bitching about how they can't get a seven figure salary flipping credit default swaps anymore, in a city that, although it once stood for real technological innovation, works hard to churn out hundreds of also-ran photo sharing apps so that said hipsters can post a thousand photos of their purse dog wearing a kermit the frog costume.
Because there was a generation that dreamed of greatness, and the technology they delivered is being used to enable mediocrity.
Most of the vitriol is coming from the "cool" generation. It boils down to narcissism of small differences - the author is uncomfortable with the idea that he himself may be a "hipster" and so looks for all the things that are hip that he lacks. He then makes sure to publicly point out how hip these things are and how he lacks them.
I myself have been guilty of this but I eventually realized my own hypocrisy and just stopped caring about it. I'm a cool twenty-something techno-hipster - not because I want to be so much as because that's who I am.
Give me a break. The older generation "dreamed of greatness" and now no young people do anymore? Isn't this the same thing that every generation says about the previous generation?
The tools and technologies that are already changing the world today, and that will change the world tomorrow, are being worked on by people who might fit the description of San Francisco hipsters. Who do you think works on Twitter? Facebook? Who do you think works on the iPhone? These are products that are already having an impact on society, and it's not just the old guys who are working on them. And as for the "current" generation, what about companies like Square, Heroku, and SimpleGeo? Is that what you call mediocrity? Get off of your high horse.
I don't think the companies today are any less impactful than the companies of yesteryear.
What's different is that now, because of consumer Internet, "cool people" are getting into computer programming. The old guard of Silicon Valley was very awkward and nerdy -- Bill Gates is the archetype. Today's software entrepreneurs are more like Jack Dorsey -- they dress well, have no trouble getting dates, and people on the street know their companies.
The nerds look at these people and say "This is OUR thing. Get out of here." And resent these new unwanted arrivals.
