People don't give technology enough credit as an art form -- the specifics of infrastructure and hard science behind it ultimately overshadow its more inchoate creativity. But the cliched trope of a socially awkward engineer coding in a hole somewhere is on its way out. Instagram is a mass product used to cover news events, Twitter is a celebrity playground and you can use Square to pay at Starbucks: The people who build technology companies now have as much influence as Oprah. In fact, Oprah is hanging out on their platform.