I'm drawn to civilization scale problems where hardware is the key to unlocking new realms in human flourishing and pushing society to the next level where software alone fails to yield tangible progress on vital goals such as national security. 

I believe Palmer Luckey said it best:  "The Snapchat app is higher tech than anything in the military"

For a long time there was a cultural conception that we had arrived at the end of history regarding hardware development and for much of the early 2000s vast quantities of talent and resources flowed into software companies. The thing to do for any technologically inclined youth was to get behind the software bandwagon and try to replicate Zuckerberg twenty years late. This approach was not without its fruits from a technological and monetary standpoint. Uber, Door dash, Instagram, Snapchat are all products of this unique cultural moment. However now as those in the US and western society generally begin to take stock of the hollowed out manufacturing base and the crippling impact this has on the national integrity of America it becomes clear that as a society we must focus on bigger problems than food delivery and photo liking.