recklessmaterialism

I listened to your amazing Endless Thread interview. I have a couple questions stemming from that conversation.

• When it comes to the invention process, I imagine you might begin with identifying several problems worth solving as a starting point. If so, what's your method for clearing the noise and culling a larger list of problems to be solved down to just a few or a single one?
• Enjoyed your homemade windmill story. What are some other common items or objects that a child-adult duo can safely and/or easily take apart and put back together or build from scratch? I assembled my first PC with my uncle by the way and I remember how satisfying it was to acquire each component and put it all together. Hope to do something similar with my nephew very soon that's equally formative. Advice is welcomed.

Do any recent events, developments, people or organizations give you optimism that Tech's mirror-tocracy will soon become a thing of the past?