We live in an odd time

I was just watching the news and some blurb about Richard Branson (the iconic Billionaire from Virgin Mobile) and his latest adventure to explore the seas, Virgin Oceanic (which follows up his equally ambitious project, Virgin Galactic). Moments later, on the same station, an infomercial appeared for some silly kitchen device that makes chopping vegetables easier. I guess it just highlighted for me, what a strange world we live in. Where technologies which should have been invented hundreds of years ago are still able to make people millions, while at the same time others are using very expensive technologies only invented within the last few years to explore the known frontiers of the universe. It demonstrated that there are always "inefficiences" or at least opportunities to improve upon the everyday experience, regardless of how trivial. The second is that the far frontiers of science seem very out of reach. This dichotomy has always bothered me. I feel as though I have a great deal of creativity, but it the areas where it can be put to use often seem rather limited - as if all of the great ideas have already been invented. I guess what this should teach me is that though the little vegetable chopper might seem totally useless and banal, it probably does provide a great deal of social utility (by virtue of its profits), even in its super-simple form. I should always remind myself not to get demoralized and that there are always a thousand improvements on the everyday experience I could easily bring to market.