I’m pretty addicted to learning about great new things, which I’m currently doing as I read through the profiles of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list for 2013. It never ceases to amaze me (and I should hope it never will) the cool things that are becoming realities and even commonplace in our lives. I love that we live in a world with such wonderful ideas. One of my recent favorites, which I wrote about before, is crowd-sourced, crowd-powered community marketplaces. I love how it empowers people to be their own micro-entrepreneurs and removes so many barriers to more traditional ways of doing things.

One in particular that I’ve learned to see in a new light is Airbnb – not only are they allowing anyone to rent out their space to bring in extra revenue, something else that has blossomed from their service is the availability of unique spaces. I mean, how else would you have gotten to stay in a repurposed jet or an igloo or a treehouse? These are the sorts of things that I only would have dreamed of previously, but now are an attainable reality. I find that truly breathtaking.

Another thing that I’m sure most other people are familiar with by now are those wearable bands (and other technology that is meant to monitor your day-to-day movement). There’s a quiet revolution building up in these gadgets, which at once are high-tech and high-fashion. While right now most of the applications are for health-related issues, I see a lot of potential here. So much data can be gathered about each and every one of us, which can be presented to us in meaningful ways: how active were you today? What places did you visit? How much time did you spend here or there, doing this or that? With each of those answers, we are empowered to understand our lives more and make better choices with that information. More lifestyle changes are coming!

Oh, and speaking of a change in how we do things – I’ve discovered Fleksy, which allows you to type without looking. Quite accurately too. How wonderful would it be to walk down the street and not have to look down at your device? To send out messages on your tablet while watching a show or even taking notes while keeping full eye contact with your professor? These are the kinds of things we’re used to with keyboards that give feedback via clicks and physical movement. Now we can do it on a completely flat screen without any feedback while typing! They’ve tested this on blind people with great success and us seeing folk do pretty well with it too. No more pudgy finger syndrome! Gotta love that. Let’s just hope that Apple actually lets them integrate this sort of technology into iOS, which they currently aren’t. AND, I hadn’t realized how intuitively I type with my thumbs without looking! Added bonus: this app makes you feel smarter. 😉

There are so many great things out in the world, constantly changing and upgrading and becoming even more awe-inspiring. Maybe instead of a photo a day blog, I should do a 365 great ideas blog. Then, I can share something I learned every single day (and that would encourage me to actually be consistently seeking new information). I might just have to do that…