The way that most people think about progress is as if progress is like walking down a street to a store. You start at one place and then you start moving forward, occasionally being forced to stop at a light when crossing a street but never being forced to take a detour. People think about progress that way because that’s how progress looks. But that isn’t really how progress works, it isn’t like walking down the street, it’s like cleaning grime out of an iPhone charging port.
That needs some explanation.