Many groundbreaking technologies are hatched by hobbyists in garages and dorm rooms. Prominent examples include personal computers, the web, blogs, and most open source software.

The fact that flip-flop-wearing amateurs have spawned large industries is often seen as an amusing quirk of the technology industry. But there is also a reason why hobbies are so important.

Business people vote with their money, and they mostly try to generate near-term financial returns. Engineers vote with their time, mostly trying to invent new and interesting things. Hobbies are the time the smartest people spend when they are not limited by immediate financial goals.

Today, tech hobbies gaining momentum include: digital currencies like Bitcoin, new software development tools like NoSQL databases, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, contactless human-computer interaction pages, and the likes of those you find on Kickstarter. kind"Handmade"hardware.

What is certain is that these hobbies of today will become the seeds of industries of the future. What the smartest people do on a weekend is what everyone else will do in a week ten years from now.