Going full-time

Big news: I’m excited to announce that I’m now working on The Roots of Progress and related projects full-time!

In early 2017, I started this blog as a side project. Since then, it’s become an obsession. My career for almost two decades has been in software engineering and tech startups. But after leaving my last job, when I looked around at what I wanted to do next, it became clear to me that this project was what I was most passionate about, and that I wanted to give it my full-time attention.

In the near-term, that means I’m going to be doing a lot more blogging here, and giving more talks and interviews. (If you’d like to have me on your podcast or book me for an event, get in touch). I may also contribute to other projects and organizations that are aligned with the mission of human progress. Look for more announcements about my activities soon.

Thank you to all my subscribers and supporters, whose enthusiasm for the subject has encouraged me to take this plunge. It’s been energizing and motivating to see how many people are fascinated by the history of the bicycle, how many show up for a talk on the history of iron, how many like and share a thread on cement. I’ve been amazed to find that my audience here has grown over 10x in just the last few months.

Thanks especially to everyone who has given financial support, including my Patreon supporters, and some others I’ll announce a bit later. And finally, a special thanks to Tyler Cowen and Patrick Collison, for their article in the Atlantic that kicked off the broader progress studies movement, and for their personal encouragement in this endeavor.

As I’ve written here lately, I see progress as a moral imperative and understanding how it works as a civic responsibility. It’s hard for me to imagine anything on Earth that is more important right now, or any way that I can contribute more to the world and to the future. Onward!

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