202110220905 The great stagnation

The 202110220859 Utilization adjusted total factor productivity of the US from 1947 through 1972 was 2.1%. Since then it decreased until the dotcom boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005 though, the rate plummeted and has been a paltry 0.17% despite a rapid rise in the rate of scientific and theoretical technological progress.¹

One lesson to take from this is that science alone isn't enough to end the stagnation. We need science to be applied to goods and services that affect the general public before we'll see a new period of sustained growth.¹

One way to understand the forces at play here is to study 202110220853 Second-order thinking and make predictions about what technologies are capable of making an impact on the general public in the next 10 years or so.