Progress: Part Three

Over the last two posts, I've been exploring this puzzle:

How do we accept the reality of progress?

Thus far, I've concluded the following:

1. Embrace boredom because real progress is full of it (Part One, 2 min read).

2. Even though you were indoctrinated in it, realize that real progress isn't like school (Part Two, 1 min read).

Now for the final piece of the puzzle.

***

Let's look back at the imagined picture of progress that I shared in the first post.

I want you to notice two things about this, and to help, I'll highlight them.

Here's the first thing:

Here's the second thing:

The reason I point this out, is because many of us have very unreliable memories.

We tend to favour recent events a lot more than past events.

When it comes to understanding progress, this is a huge trap.

If you look at the first thing I pointed out, that's a picture of recent progress.

If you only look at that picture, then it's easy to conclude that you're not progressing, because in fact, you're going backward.

The second thing is simply a longer time horizon.

The trick is to realize that both of these are true.

Progress in the short-term might look like going backwards, and then when viewed over a slightly longer time horizon, it might look like moving forwards.

So, the final piece of our puzzle is this:

To accept the reality of progress, we must realize that progress moves both ways.

In the short-term, it moves backwards. In the long-term, it moves forwards.

If you're stuck in the short-term, just turn back the clock a bit further.