"hundreds of the brightest minds of modern civilization have been hard at work not curing cancer. Instead, they have been refining techniques for getting you and me to click on banner ads."

Just out of curiosity... Have you ever purposefully clicked on an ad on the internet? I honestly dont think I ever have.

ps. I mean an outright overt straight up ad, not, for example, some article linked on HN that is a thinly veiled promo piece for something.