"And also, lest my own comment be misinterpreted, let it be known that I DO think drones and very, very cool. But I'd think them even cooler if I had access to a manicure drone who would fly over on demand and do my nails' bidding."

"Hi Rain,I concede that I may have misinterpreted some of your points and made a few assumptions. I'm sorry that you felt I didn't bother reading your entry carefully, but that is not the case. Some thoughts below:"On the other hand, I'm loathe to fall prey to the current malaise of people becoming offended for the sake of groups to which they do not belong"This is where I got the "offensive" bit from -- you specifically use the word. The way I read this was that you found this initiative intuitively offensive but at the same time you were cognizant of the fact that you weren't the target audience so you were trying to resist it. And it seemed, to me, to be the reason you wrote the article in the first place. As for the values thing, I absolutely concede that I made several assumptions completely based on generalizations. I guess I was a little upset (ha! Upset at the Internet! You think I would've learned better :) ) that someone would find such an innocuous product/initiative potentially unappealing and I could only assume it was because, like many guys I know, you thought women should get excited about STEM for the same reason men do and found cosmetics to be an inferior area of interest as compared to, say, drones. That said, you never did clarify the value judgement, and I am still curious as to why you are inclined to feel this way.Again, I apologize for making a generalization; I guess confirmation bias got the best of me. I've no desire to be a troll or social justice warrior in the comments section, and really did intend for my note to be my opening to a two-way conversation."

"Imagine this: someone invents a machine -- doesn't matter what it is -- that makes you so much more efficient that you suddenly have two hours of extra free time each week, guaranteed. In our day and age, two hours is huge! And imagine that machine is only a couple hundred bucks at most, and would potentially work successfully for 50% of the people you know! Would you consider that a trivial and unimportant and potentially  "offensive" product to expect people to get excited about?"I dislike the notion that cosmetics ought be the lifestyle gateway into technology for women. "This is a values issue. You perceive cosmetics and other women's beauty areas as being inconsequential, and not as "cool," "important," or "relevant" as the areas men find exciting -- and thus us women should be upset that such a low bar is being set for us. But the reality is that for most of us women, cosmetics play a huge part in our daily lives and any innovations in the space are incredibly exciting! I think many women haven't been interested in this type of technology exactly because no one is addressing the areas we give a shit about and affect our own daily lives.  As a woman in technology, I think this is a brilliant idea. I've been talking about a manicure machine for years and wishing someone would build it. The female beauty regimen is a HUGE pain point that is grossly underserved by technology. It's not about the actual hair or nails or cosmetics. It's about the time, money, and energy us women spend on this crap.To look put together, every single morning, I spend about an hour on hair and makeup. In addition, I spend another additional hour or two a week on shaving, plucking, tweezing, you name it. And  And right now, because I'm so busy, my nails look like shit. For women, a manicure is a 2+ hr ordeal. I have to get to the salon, wait my turn, sit there for an hour without being able to use my hands (no phone! It's torture) and then get back to my home/office/wherever. And then after a week my nail polish starts chipping, which is pretty unacceptable in a professional environment, so I have to go do it all over again. And not to mention it costs $20-50 each time. I can't imagine how working moms have time for this crap, but in many professions, nicely manicured nails for women are an unspoken expectation so they don't have a choice. And frankly, we also just like having pretty nails.In that context, you can see that a nail machine is actually a huge innovation, and has the potential to excite women who have never even considered the possibilities of technology to address their needs. And that there is nothing offensive about that at all."