As an expectant mom who is currently self-employed, I'm amazed at just how tied to the workplace maternity benefits are.

As a matter of personal philosophy, I have generally said, 'Why not?' far more often than either 'Why?' or 'Not.'

We live in a world now where everything is tweeted and Instagrammed and tagged and now, God help us, Vined. Calling out grievances over Twitter has become an industry norm.

The road system that we've come to depend on, the road system that we built our wealth on and our power on, is falling apart.

When I went to medical school, the term 'digital' applied only to rectal exams.

Whether you are a consumer, a hardware maker, a software developer or a provider of cool new services, it's hard to make a move in the American cellphone world without the permission of the companies that own the pipes.

Hard systems are everything we're using right now - computers, phones, planes, the clothes you're wearing, the room you're in. Everything there involves 100% use of technology and expertise to make it, and nothing we make - including space exploration vehicles and so on - is complex. Everything we make is complicated. Nothing is self-renewing.

My background is in art. I was a painter and an occasional sculptor, and I really like materials - you know, stuff. Physical objects. The world and the trees and the sunshine and the flowers. And all of that doesn't seem to really exist out in the ether of the Internet.