Why Should We Focus on Progress?

As a first principle, I'm assuming that we want progress as a society: in the words of Benjamin Friedman, "a rising standard of living fosters openness, tolerance and democracy."

For years, I've been reading and writing about what "Progress" is: the most compact definition I've found so far is the one from Benjamin Friedman. However, it's certainly not just economic growth.

After defining what it is, we can move on to the next step: finding what are the growth levers for our societies.

Next up is understanding how we can move those levers to accelerate progress.

This is a simplified blueprint of the topics that I care about, how they interconnect, and how I want to contribute to society for the next few years.

A rising standard of living fosters openness, tolerance and democracy.

— Benjamin Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth

Economics of Science is a deeply understudied sub-field of Economics, says Tyler Cowen. This can be a central feature of Progress Studies as a field.