I think there is an enormous amount of amazing potential for "super-empowered individuals" to make headway whether in business, technology, or science. Tools are cheap, knowledge is easy to spread. I love being able to travel with a laptop etc. But social reality hasn't caught up yet to support these possibilities to their potential. In particular, I find we need much more social interaction and support than one gets by default as an independence (and this becomes painfully obvious especially after a few months of being out of the institution). We live in a society of solitude. Loneliness has never been so rampant. It is crucial to creative thinking, to memory performance, to cognition, to motivation, to everything. How do we create better environments for this, outside of universities/corporations? Social support is absolutely important and difficult to find. The longer you are away, the harder it is to find.
I have more thoughts on this but will have to get to it later.