I hadn’t heard of the “Ratchet, Hatchet, Pivot” before. I really like it for intra-ecosystem communication.
I also love these questions: “What has gone right and why, what is going wrong and why, and what can be done to overcome the problems facing humanity?”
You can swap humanity for “my life,” “my family,” “my community,” “my country,” etc for a universally useful exercise.
On a separate note, your piece resonated because something I’m trying to interrogate for myself is also what you seem to be thinking about: what is the role of media in advancing progress?
I have a sneaking suspicion that part of the reason why most optimistic media usually(?) doesn’t do well is because it’s not tied to a particular theory of change.
I imagine most people wondering: “Cool, I’m glad to know that this cool invention is being built. But what exactly does this have to do with me?”
I suspect that media that feels like media that supports the growth a movement with clear and exciting goals could get traction.
I’ve seen some progress-adjacent YouTube channels do really well roughly targeting a niche of people who want to electrify their house, so they like to be up to date on new energy / storage inventions.
And I predict that I would love to follow media covering the journey of a group trying to get some progress-related legislation passed.
Movement media.
I’m not sure there’s room for general purpose optimistic, progress-oriented media beyond the current players right now. But I could be wrong!
Thank you kindly for your warm response; most welcome indeed. I think one of the grand challenges for media is that we’re physically and chemically wired with an innate negativity bias, part of the inescapable condition of being human. Thus anything that smacks of untempered optimism activates our biochemical red flag system.
The current media, however, has exploited this doom-bait hack to maximum effect, supersaturating content with the triggers that fire our negativity response and keep us wondering whether we have enough pasta to survive the first few weeks of a general nuclear exchange. It’s addictive, and while it keeps us entertained, it doesn’t help us make better choices about the future. On a slight side tangent, one quick way to estimate whether the content is education or entertainment is to ask whether it helps you make choices about the future.
Regards your comment,
“I’m not sure there’s room for general purpose optimistic, progress-oriented media beyond the current players right now. But I could be wrong!”
I would say that I think there’s still enormous room for improvement and innovation. As I’ve said many times, we’re at the bottom of the s-curve for innovation in progress studies, not the top. What we think of as established progress media platforms are just in their infancy, and the best is yet to come. I think it would be incredible to build out a “Pivot” concept website that works off this theory, and I suspect it would do well, although I could always be wrong. It will be fascinating to see the progress studies movement climb the tech tree of content communications, and I’m really thankful I’m a tiny part of it.
I enjoyed your piece, Tony.
I hadn’t heard of the “Ratchet, Hatchet, Pivot” before. I really like it for intra-ecosystem communication.
I also love these questions: “What has gone right and why, what is going wrong and why, and what can be done to overcome the problems facing humanity?”
You can swap humanity for “my life,” “my family,” “my community,” “my country,” etc for a universally useful exercise.
On a separate note, your piece resonated because something I’m trying to interrogate for myself is also what you seem to be thinking about: what is the role of media in advancing progress?
I have a sneaking suspicion that part of the reason why most optimistic media usually(?) doesn’t do well is because it’s not tied to a particular theory of change.
I imagine most people wondering: “Cool, I’m glad to know that this cool invention is being built. But what exactly does this have to do with me?”
I suspect that media that feels like media that supports the growth a movement with clear and exciting goals could get traction.
I’ve seen some progress-adjacent YouTube channels do really well roughly targeting a niche of people who want to electrify their house, so they like to be up to date on new energy / storage inventions.
And I predict that I would love to follow media covering the journey of a group trying to get some progress-related legislation passed.
Movement media.
I’m not sure there’s room for general purpose optimistic, progress-oriented media beyond the current players right now. But I could be wrong!
What do you think?
Thank you kindly for your warm response; most welcome indeed. I think one of the grand challenges for media is that we’re physically and chemically wired with an innate negativity bias, part of the inescapable condition of being human. Thus anything that smacks of untempered optimism activates our biochemical red flag system.
The current media, however, has exploited this doom-bait hack to maximum effect, supersaturating content with the triggers that fire our negativity response and keep us wondering whether we have enough pasta to survive the first few weeks of a general nuclear exchange. It’s addictive, and while it keeps us entertained, it doesn’t help us make better choices about the future. On a slight side tangent, one quick way to estimate whether the content is education or entertainment is to ask whether it helps you make choices about the future.
Regards your comment,
I would say that I think there’s still enormous room for improvement and innovation. As I’ve said many times, we’re at the bottom of the s-curve for innovation in progress studies, not the top. What we think of as established progress media platforms are just in their infancy, and the best is yet to come. I think it would be incredible to build out a “Pivot” concept website that works off this theory, and I suspect it would do well, although I could always be wrong. It will be fascinating to see the progress studies movement climb the tech tree of content communications, and I’m really thankful I’m a tiny part of it.
Thanks again for your comment.