For all the power we have expended, humankind could be so much further along than we are.
I wish the people who spent energy making terrible ad experiences would just quit their jobs and apply their talents to something of actual value.
i'm genuinely asking, because i'm genuinely curious. i'm lucky enough to get paid decently to work at a job that i believe in, and that's been true of the vast majority of my employment history. but i can think of an e-commerce gig i took that i did not particularly believe in (though i certainly didn't find it immoral), and what was essentially a classed up spam generation gig that i turned down a long time ago (more for the fact that i had a bit of trouble trusting the founder when i pressed him on what equity and future compensation might look like, though i was also rather hesitant to become a spammer, er, direct marketer).
That's noble thought, but if the pay is high enough, you'd be plain dumb not to do it. Especially when there is someone else willing to ponce on the opportunity if you turn it down.
"someone's gonna get paid, might as well be me" isn't, IMO, a reasonable way to make decisions. sometimes the morally correct thing to do is to pass up a payday, because you don't think the thing being done is the right thing for the world.
You're gonna have to do a pretty amazing job to convince people that ad tech qualifies as that.