Have you ever wondered why in the world do we keep moving forward and always seeking something new and better? Have you wondered whenever something is enough?
I have always asked myself whenever any of the things that we do really matter, and after developing countless theories, I have come up with an answer to these questions.
The main reason why we move forward and the reason why we constantly are trying to chase the next shiny thing is because of progress. Progress can mean many different things, but here it is an uncontrollable desire to improve and become better.
The burning desire to find yourself better today than you were yesterday. A hot passion for achieving the next milestone.
In most cases, when we reach the minimum amount of money earned, or we do something good enough, the logic and most of the economic theories tell us to stop.
Stop. You have achieved the best marginal effect on your time. Don’t progress. There is no reason to.
But instead of listening to that voice, we keep on moving forward, disregarding everything that we can in order to improve and arrive at the ultimate destination.
Why do humans want to progress
In truth, we don’t know. Most books and research that gets published and covers this topic gets bombarded by bad reviews and complete backlash in the scientific community.
One of the main reasons for it is because studying something that is tied both to psychology and the inner workings of the brain is incredibly hard. At the moment, it is tough to provide any concrete evidence.
We know that social pressure and social movement is the biggest motivator to growing your monetary ownership and trying to get richer is the ultimate way of getting more respect and better intimate partner, but what about trying to progress in sports when you know you are never winning an Olympiad, or woodcutting when you know you are not selling anything that you make.
Those are the topics that still need research and are not fully covered. But from the basic research that we have, it is also tied to the ultimate motivator that has existed since ancient times. Being more respected than others in the eyes of your social surrounding.
Why does it matter?
In reality, progress is the sole reason that you are able to read this article on the internet and on a screen that is projecting the words on the screen. All of the things that we use every single day are human-made, and if you can’t find something in the wild as a natural occurrence, the only reason it exists now is progress.
So if you like your phone and everything you have in your house, make sure to love and embrace the progress. Otherwise, we would still be stuck in the Stone Age.
Klim Y
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