Is the obsession with appification hurting tech?

Yes, we get it. There’s an app for that. And that. And even that. The appification of everything is where it’s at. The kids love the apps. And the slightly older kids love making them. Where app making is concerned, the talent — and the venture capital — flows like champagne at a startup launch.  But wait. I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall that bubbles sometimes burst.

This week’s lead Searchlight item looks at what The New York Times Magazine contributor — and potential future app-maker — Yiren Lu calls Silicon Valley’s “youth problem.” The problem being, primarily, that the best and brightest young tech minds are drawn to work for companies whose stock in trade is comprised of things such as apps for sexting or hailing a cab. In other words, our best minds aren’t helping to solve our biggest problems. Not to mention their eschewing of less-sexy tech jobs means fewer folks are working on the technology that makes apps work. In the digital age, this is not just a Silicon Valley problem — it is an everywhere problem.

Also this week: Crowdsourcing could help solve the Malaysian Airlines mystery, Google gets serious about Fiber, why Christopher Columbus should be on your data analytics team and more!