You might like Anton Howes’ blog, where he discusses invention and progress ~1500-1800. There could be some interesting lessons as people are considering ways of incentivising progress like prizes and impact certificates
I often think about why electricity didn’t immediately revolutionise manufacturing (spoiler: people had to shift their mindset away from thinking of one giant steam engine powering every machine, to having small electric motors at each machine that could be controlled individually)
There are some interesting calls for historical research here. Specifically:
a history of philanthropy
social movements which achieved an outsized impact. For example, the group of early neoliberals clustered around Chicago achieved a wild amount amount of influence, partly through the so-called ‘Chicago boys’.
Interesting initiative!
Some scattered thoughts:
You might like Anton Howes’ blog, where he discusses invention and progress ~1500-1800. There could be some interesting lessons as people are considering ways of incentivising progress like prizes and impact certificates
I often think about why electricity didn’t immediately revolutionise manufacturing (spoiler: people had to shift their mindset away from thinking of one giant steam engine powering every machine, to having small electric motors at each machine that could be controlled individually)
There are some interesting calls for historical research here. Specifically:
a history of philanthropy
social movements which achieved an outsized impact. For example, the group of early neoliberals clustered around Chicago achieved a wild amount amount of influence, partly through the so-called ‘Chicago boys’.
I’d love to understand more about discontinuous progress in history
There’s a piece here with other history research ideas (and interesting stuff in the comments too)
P.S. Congrats on finishing the Caro book :)