Forging a career

The Maker Faire in Queens was amazing. Absolutely packed with families, serious geeks, casual observers, kickstarter companies and more. Perhaps the most exciting thing was that to my eye, it was pretty evenly split by gender at all ages, and the young girls seemed to be enjoying the soldering and assembling and programming at least as much as the young boys. Girls historically lose interest around 10-12 when they're led to believe that science is not "cool", so this seems a hugely positive change. It would have been hard to imagine any of this when I was growing up - geeks were definitely not cool - and it's thrilling to see how tinkering and exploration and invention has become so mainstream. The Maker Faire was so overwhelming positive, wholesome, optimistic, inspiring. Those Make guys and gals really have created a revolution. All that said, the only welder I know anything about was also a dancer at night. The corny lesson from both her story and the Maker Faire is the same: Take your passion and make it happen.