Key Posts
This section lists the most popular posts on this blog, as well as those that I think are most important to understanding progress.
- An Introduction to Progress (the best place to start)
- The Five Keys to Progress (the most important concept in understanding the causes of progress)
- What the Progress Studies Community Needs to Do to Grow
- How Do We Measure Progress?
- The Core Tenets of Progress Studies
- Key Questions that Progress Studies Must Answer
- Technological Innovation is Like Solving a Jigsaw Puzzle
Recent Blog Posts
The Five Keys to Progress (Part 1): An Introduction to the concept and why it matters
To transition from poverty to progress, a society needs: 1) a highly efficient food production system, 2) trade-based cities, 3) decentralization of power, and 4) a high value-added export industry, and 5) widespread use of fossil fuels.
An Introduction to Progress: Mankind’s Greatest Achievement
Progress is “the sustained improvement in the material standard-of-living of a large group of people over a long period of time.” Progress is caused by…
The Five Keys to Progress (Part 6): Fossil Fuels
Widespread use of fossil fuels is essential for progress. While we may invent a better energy technology in the future, we have not done so yet.
How Should Progress Studies Movement Make Decisions?
The Progress Studies movements needs a new decision-making process that is more inclusive, more transparent, leads to group decisions faster, and leads to more action to get things done.
The Five Keys to Progress (Part 5): High Value-Added Export Industries
In order to prosper a city or nation needs at least one high value-added industry that exports to the rest of the world.
The Five Keys to Progress (Part 4): Decentralization of Power
To experience progress, a society needs decentralized political, economic, religious and ideological power. Of particular importance are elites being forced into transparent, non-violent competition that undermines their ability to forcibly extract wealth from the masses. This also allows citizens to freely choose among institutions based upon what they have offer to each individual and society in general.
The Five Keys to Progress (Part 3): Cities
Trade-based cities packed with a large number of free citizens possessing a wide variety of skills are essential for progress. These people innovate new technologies, skills and social organizations and copy the innovations made by others.
The Five Keys to Progress (Part 2): Highly efficient food production and distribution system
A highly efficient food production and distribution system enables societies to overcome geographical constraints to food production so that large numbers of people can focus on solving problems other than getting enough food to eat.
What the Progress Studies Movement Needs to Do to Grow
We need to think carefully about how we can create a healthy ecosystem that attracts new members, delivers benefits to society and allows members to contribute to the movement based upon their skills and interests.
Constraints to the Diffusion of Progress (part 3): Ethnic/Religious/Racial Identities and Ideology
Two of the most significant constraints to the diffusion throughout the world progress today are racial/ethnic/religious identities and ideologies. They each make it less likely that the poor copy what works.
Constraints to the Diffusion of Progress (part 2): Why How Our Ancestors Acquired Their Food Still Matters
Why history matters so much to the relative wealth of nations, and why it still constrains progress today.