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William Kamkwamba All William wanted was to have electricity for reading books after sunset. Instead, he became an internationally known role model for determination and inventive solutions by building a windmill—at age 14, while living in rural Malawi, with only library books as guides and junk bicycle parts for building material. Kind of makes you wonder what you’re doing with all your...

While past generations have dreamed of building rocket ships or designing movie creatures, those kinds of jobs were few and far between. However, because there’s now a space race in the private sector, the entertainment industry’s use of computing power has boomed, and consumer goods are getting increasingly smart. The jobs that were once only daydreams are now listed on numerous job...

As a life-long rule of thumb, never stop learning. Ever. Learning a new skill not only allows you to use and enjoy that new skill, it’s the neuro equivalent of heaving lifting—only it’s your memory and cognitive function that gets the six-pack abs. What’s more, learning can improve your brain at almost any age. There’s even a term, “brain plasticity,” to describe how the brain can...

It’s safe to say that technology is advancing so fast that the future will have jobs that don’t exist today. Which is why it’s fun to dream a little bit about what might be on your not-too-distant resume. Artificial Intelligence Psychologist. Will code cheer up your sad computer or will it need a personal touch to talk through difficult issues? Space Trash Engineer. Along with...

Most people usually don’t think of farming as a high-tech profession, but farmers are always utilizing leading edge technology. Take self-driving cars. Farmers have already had self-driving tractors for years to maximize planting and efficiency. Combines are able to generate accurate yield maps that show which parts of the field produced the most grain. And even the irrigation pivots we see...

When Bill Gates was 13, he wrote a computer program that played tic-tac-toe. Age 13. That’s when it all started, that’s when his fascination began. While Bill is a really smart guy, his story shows how one “first” and one pursuit of an interest can lead to truly incredible things. It doesn’t matter if you’re 13, 31 or 62, you can always take that one step forward. Wikipedia.org -...

Fact: your smart phone has more computing power than the original space shuttle, which used only 1MB of RAM. By comparison, an iPhone 4s had 512 MB of RAM. So why didn’t NASA upgrade? Because even at 30-years old (500 in technology years), the computing system was incredibly reliable. Four computers operated simultaneously, and if one had a different result, it was presumed wrong by the...

Sod houses don’t get a lot of credit for innovation, but they played an important role for pioneers. Without trees, sod from thickly rooted prairie grass was the next best thing. They were cheap and were warm in the winter. The “soddy” kept families alive. So why mention sod houses in a technology blog? Because they represent the initial hurdles of pursing a big dream. Before you can...

You, dear reader, are one of the luckiest people to have ever lived. With technology, you can spread an idea for social change, prototype the invention that saves millions of lives, connect to influential people and do it all from a single computer. In the history of the world, no one has had access to so much knowledge, wisdom and tools like you have today. If you wanted to get 80% of the...

If you can learn how to drive, create a football play, or follow Ikea furniture instructions, than you can learn how to code. It requires effort on your part to learn, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist. Coding is essentially the language of technology. Just as learning how to read and write enables you to learn, create and share ideas, coding allows you to bring ideas to life in...