What are the primary characteristics you think an effective “culture of progress” would have?
Do you see any concrete, meaningful steps being taken to get to such a culture? Any opportunities in that direction that you see that you wish were being worked toward right now but aren’t?
Among other things it’s important that people think that of themselves as having the agency to solve big problems; that innovation and entrepreneurship—basically just pioneering new paths—is one of the things that it’s normal to do with your life. I have written a bit about that here and here.
You can try to do that at scale by trying to impact pop culture, and I don’t doubt that works to some degree. But I think the challenge is you are trying to convince someone that people like you can innovate too; and there is an inherent distance between what’s in pop culture and yourself for most people, simply because most people are not the subject of movies, TV shows, profiles, etc. More effective if it’s your brother or classmate or coworker who models the innovative career path, since it’s a small leap to think “if they can do it, why not me?”
What are the primary characteristics you think an effective “culture of progress” would have?
Do you see any concrete, meaningful steps being taken to get to such a culture? Any opportunities in that direction that you see that you wish were being worked toward right now but aren’t?
Among other things it’s important that people think that of themselves as having the agency to solve big problems; that innovation and entrepreneurship—basically just pioneering new paths—is one of the things that it’s normal to do with your life. I have written a bit about that here and here.
You can try to do that at scale by trying to impact pop culture, and I don’t doubt that works to some degree. But I think the challenge is you are trying to convince someone that people like you can innovate too; and there is an inherent distance between what’s in pop culture and yourself for most people, simply because most people are not the subject of movies, TV shows, profiles, etc. More effective if it’s your brother or classmate or coworker who models the innovative career path, since it’s a small leap to think “if they can do it, why not me?”