This directly implies that all the people that did useful stuff (improving cancer survivability, new vaccines, renewable energy, and others) are all "below" the "greatest minds of our generation".
Not to mention it also suggests there is a way to "compare" minds. I would not choose myself to do somethings, but that does not mean I despise automatically people choosing to.
It doesn't seem wasteful and unproductive, given that the result of the HFT industry is smaller bid/ask spreads (lowering costs for all trades) and payment for order flow which is the mechanism that eliminated retail commissions and provides price improvement on many retail trades. And even so, HFT firms are making money.
It might not seem like real work, but making money by reducing costs of market participants sounds like a good thing. I admit though, block trades might be harder now than before the rise of HFT.
If you could do warehousing/distributing/coordinating fresh foods in a way that reduced the difference in price between the farmer and the consumer and make money doing it, that would clearly be good work.
I'll never be able to figure out what people get from repeating the same thing over and over. I've seen this same exact comment 1000 times on hn and I'm 100% sure you have too (indeed I believe the reason you repeat is because you've seen it and agree with it).
What a wasteful and unproductive enterprise, considering the vast majority of the devised improvements never see the public eye.
Still, impressive work. Imagine if those brilliant minds behind this were focused somewhere else.