"...the street finds its own uses for things" (William Gibson, Burning Chrome) is probably my favorite literary line to quote, regarding use of tech.
It's something of a mantra I repeat to remind myself that every technology created, whether through academia or big evil industry, will eventually be co-opted by the people and put to uses never intended.
This was the essence of (old school) hacking. My street tools have been
#perl #forth #awk and #tcl