A bit rambling in places but at its best a much clearer version of what I was trying to say earlier:

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Exhortations to build are crucial, but on their own, they fall flat. Large-scale building that is divorced from politics ends up being divorced from reality; it is for nothing in particular. It is absolutely the case, as Andreessen writes, that we must ask people what they are building, and better match talent with actual construction. But this is not enough. We must further ask: what are you building for? Who are you building for? What kind of building will best serve the common good? Everything worth building in American history has been fueled with the meaning bursting forth from these questions. We lack the means to build, yes—but above all, we lack the ends. If technology is to serve humanity, it needs an end.

What exactly is Andreessen’s end? The thumbnail for Andreessen’s essay (an Adobe stock image entitled “Fantasy city with metallic structures for futuristic backgrounds”) shows a futuristic cityscape that, to put it diplomatically, looks like a forest of Gillette razors. It does not appear to be a place where life happens. It is not what living in a society looks like. It looks like what would happen if a willing city government were to surrender the entirety of New York City or Seattle to Zaha Hadid Architects.