I'm kind of in the same boat. When I first heard about bitcoin I was sabbatical from my former university and didn't have time to really get into it. That was 2011 and now I'm kicking myself for not making time to get into it then. No I'm playing catch up.
I get the feeling that Augur is going to make a big change when it comes online for real. The concept of a smart contract is huge, but it has a lot more applications if there is a good interface with the real world. I think that Augur is that interface.
One day last week I was driving home from work and I had an idea about how Augur could be used to help poor people and also recovering drug addicts. The idea is still only half-baked, but it has to do with the contract polling people in the addict's (maybe patient is a better word) circle of friends and family about how they are doing. When they answer truthfully they earn a little bit of REP (the Augur token) and so does the patient. As long as the patient sticks with the program, the contract will keep making payments, but if things go south it could also alert a drug counselor or take some other action.
One of the benefits would be for the witnesses who would vouch for the patient. They would be essentially cashing in on their good reputation and reliability. A really well respected witness with a long track record of service might be seeing dozens of patients a day without leaving their neighborhood.
At any rate - you seem like someone who likes to think about things. Maybe you would like to think about how blockchains can be used to fight addiction and unemployment.
These are exactly the types of initiatives that I support and that I think blockchain can be leveraged to make happen. Stay connected and hopefully as a community we can start to solve the REAL problems of today.