I think there's a time factor too...for much of 2005-2007, many of the people who might otherwise be changing the world were a.) working for hedge funds or b.) chasing social networking, casual gaming, or video startups because that's where the money was. It's only with the recent financial crisis that getting deep expertise has become fashionable again, because now there are no easy outs. But it takes a minimum of 2-3 years (some would say 10+) to go from "I'm going to change the world" to "I'm changing the world."
Oh I'm sorry, I work at a social networking entertainment start-up. You're absolutely right, I should be changing the world. I'll get started on that right away.
Letsee, I'm going to need some granola, Beatles tunes, a hipster haircut, and a peace-encouraging, inner-city-black-kid-helping, hippie-esque, capitalism-hating, new-age social-green-Obama-natural job. Doing something. That will change the world. Yeah.
FWIW, I founded a casual-gaming + social-networking site in 2007. So I'm including myself in that smart-people-doing-useless-things complaint.
And I maintain that a social networking entertainment startup is most likely useless. If that's what you wanna do, more power to you. But don't kid yourself about its importance.
Textbook example of a strawman attack. A social networking entertainment startup will probably "change the world" about as much as your granola lover will.
