Would want to keep any agenda specific enough to drive outcomes, but not too specific as to turn people off from petty disagreements. Balance it at some middle level of abstraction, and make it very straightforward/logical that the agenda leads to progress. What are the different areas an agenda could cover?
Specific technologies—as you mentioned, something like “progress is good. energy allows more progress. cheaper energy allows more energy. nuclear is cheaper energy. nuclear is good ⇒ promote nuclear”
Media—definitive stance on pro-progress media (books, videos, podcasts, memes, movies, etc.) and what makes something “pro-progress”
Regulation—hypotheses with lots of data on specific regulations that, if removed or revisited, would increase progress
“Would want to keep any agenda specific enough to drive outcomes, but not too specific as to turn people off from petty disagreements.”
I think unfortunately, this is the equivalent of eating your cake and having it too. Progress studies, if it’s actionable, largely is going to impact into the political world (because we want to do xyz things, which government has some presence in, to accelerate the pace of progress), so disagreement is going to exist.
For instance, you mention regulations that “if removed or revisited” would increase progress. Two areas that come to mind for me are housing construction and nuclear regulation—but these are contentious, political topics. If we actually want to achieve real-world things here, I think specificity is unfortunately required.
Thinking out loud here...
Would want to keep any agenda specific enough to drive outcomes, but not too specific as to turn people off from petty disagreements. Balance it at some middle level of abstraction, and make it very straightforward/logical that the agenda leads to progress. What are the different areas an agenda could cover?
Specific technologies—as you mentioned, something like “progress is good. energy allows more progress. cheaper energy allows more energy. nuclear is cheaper energy. nuclear is good ⇒ promote nuclear”
Media—definitive stance on pro-progress media (books, videos, podcasts, memes, movies, etc.) and what makes something “pro-progress”
Regulation—hypotheses with lots of data on specific regulations that, if removed or revisited, would increase progress
“Would want to keep any agenda specific enough to drive outcomes, but not too specific as to turn people off from petty disagreements.”
I think unfortunately, this is the equivalent of eating your cake and having it too. Progress studies, if it’s actionable, largely is going to impact into the political world (because we want to do xyz things, which government has some presence in, to accelerate the pace of progress), so disagreement is going to exist.
For instance, you mention regulations that “if removed or revisited” would increase progress. Two areas that come to mind for me are housing construction and nuclear regulation—but these are contentious, political topics. If we actually want to achieve real-world things here, I think specificity is unfortunately required.