Waymo is on an exponential learning curve, with every mile driven adding to its knowledge base. humanprogress.org/waymo-driv…

Do you struggle with distraction, eat too much, and worry about distant crises? Two thousand years ago, those were the problems of an emperor. Today, they’re the problems of ordinary people. For most of human history, few people had those problems. Scarcity imposed its own discipline: food was limited, physical exertion unavoidable, entertainment scarce, and everyday survival demanded attention. Now, calories are abundant, physical exertion is optional, and entertainment is endless. The challenge increasingly isn’t gaining access to things, but regulating our access to them. From @AdamOmaryPhD: humanprogress.org/first-worl…

To believe things are getting worse when they have, in fact, never been better is a classic misdiagnosis. And like a medical misdiagnosis, it risks ill-advised treatment: public demand for government action gives populist leaders every incentive to oblige. Yet such policies often have the opposite effect—exacerbating the problems they’re intended to address. humanprogress.org/how-pessim…

The same hours of work that bought a US blue-collar worker one basket of 75 finished goods in 1971 bought 5.19 baskets in 2024. humanprogress.org/the-growin…

Vietnam signed a free trade agreement with the EFTA countries that waives or reduces customs duties on imports of industrial, fish, and agricultural products. humanprogress.org/vietnam-si…

Resource abundance—understood as the number of work hours required to acquire something—has improved over recent decades by an average of 2-4% per year, effectively doubling every 20 to 35 years. humanprogress.org/superabund…

Since 1950, the time price of gasoline for US blue-collar workers has fallen by 35%. For the time it took to earn enough money to buy a gallon of gasoline in 1950, a blue-collar worker in 2025 could buy 1.54 gallons. humanprogress.org/gasoline-a…

In 1980, an hour of US blue-collar labor could buy 152 kWh; in 2025, it bought 207 kWh—a 36% increase in energy abundance. humanprogress.org/time-prici…

The Grim Old Days is out now. @chellivia’s new book takes readers inside the preindustrial world, drawing on firsthand accounts and historical research to reveal the poverty, violence, disease, filth, and hardship that shaped everyday life. Learn the truth about the preindustrial past. Order your copy today: amazon.com/Grim-Old-Days-Int…

Smartphones are increasingly accused of fueling the global decline in fertility, but the evidence that smartphones reduce fertility is weaker than many think. humanprogress.org/what-if-sm…

Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has implemented same-day metagenomic testing for critically ill children. Unlike conventional targeted diagnostic tests, which look for a limited, predetermined set of pathogens, metagenomic testing sequences genetic material in a sample, allowing doctors to identify a much broader range of infections. humanprogress.org/same-day-t…