Reclaiming Abundance: Building a Future of Innovation and Progress

​In this episode of The Main Function, Garry sits down with Atlantic staff writer and Plain English podcast host Derek Thompson to discuss his new book Abundance (co-authored with Ezra Klein). They analyze how we got here, what still needs to be fixed, and what 2050 might look like if we restore a vision of technological innovation and prosperity.

Key Takeaways

• Once global leaders in building and innovation, many developed nations have seen progress stifled by mounting bureaucracy and regulatory complexity over the past 50 years.
• California's high-speed rail project exemplifies modern building failures—$33 billion invested with minimal progress due to overlapping jurisdictions and excessive process requirements.
• Today's middle-class individuals enjoy living standards that surpass historical elites like Thomas Jefferson, demonstrating technology's remarkable power to create widespread prosperity.
• Scientists currently waste approximately 40% of their time on paperwork and grant applications rather than conducting groundbreaking research, highlighting the need for institutional reform.
• The "Abundance Agenda" advocates for better technology policies, including "pull funding" that rewards results rather than pre-selecting winners through traditional subsidies.
• Environmental technologies like carbon capture represent crucial opportunities for innovation that addresses existential challenges while creating new economic value.
• AI advancements show particular promise in accelerating drug development by mapping molecular interactions of FDA-approved medications and creating new treatment pathways.

Timeline Overview

00:00 - 01:32 - Introduction Derek Thompson discusses his new book "Abundance" (co-authored with Ezra Klein) and how bureaucracy has hindered innovation.

01:32 - 04:07 - The 2050 Vision Exploration of what a world of natural superabundance might look like and how business virtue could be redefined.

04:07 - 06:39 - What Went Wrong Analysis of how complex legal frameworks and regulatory burdens have paralyzed infrastructure development.

06:39 - 08:01 - The High Speed Rail Debacle California's $33 billion investment in high-speed rail as a case study in infrastructure failure.

08:01 - 12:06  - Different Eras of Building Historical comparison of building capacity across different time periods and what changed.

12:06 - 17:00 - How Tech Has Improved Our Lives Discussion of how middle-class individuals now live better than historical elites like Thomas Jefferson.

17:00 - 23:08 - NIH As a Case Study For Why Things Are Broken Examination of how scientists waste 40% of their time on paperwork rather than breakthrough research.

23:08 - 26:05 - How To Make Real Progress Thompson's definition of progress as "the elimination of pain and increased power for most people."

26:05 - 29:07 - The Role of Hard Tech The importance of physical technologies beyond software, including AI's role in accelerating development.

29:07 - 32:43 - The Abundance Agenda Advocacy for policy reforms including "pull funding" approaches that reward results over pre-selection.

32:43 - End - Advice For Founders Guidance to focus on unique contributions and curiosity-driven work that addresses fundamental problems

The Vision of Abundance for 2050

• The world stands at a crossroads between continued bureaucratic paralysis and a return to innovation that could reshape our future by 2050. Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein's book "Abundance" outlines how technological progress and regulatory reform could create a future of unprecedented prosperity and environmental sustainability.
• A true abundance agenda would make clean energy universally available and affordable, transforming our relationship with the natural world from one of scarcity and extraction to natural superabundance.
• Vision 2050 represents a realistic utopia where technological innovation solves many of today's seemingly intractable problems, from climate change to healthcare access to transportation.
• This potential future isn't guaranteed—it requires deliberate policy choices and a cultural shift away from the regulatory frameworks that have stifled innovation and building capacity in developed nations.
• The transition would redefine virtue in business from merely maximizing shareholder value to creating genuine abundance that benefits society broadly through technological advancement.

What Went Wrong with Building and Innovation

• The process for building crucial infrastructure has become painfully complex globally, with even well-funded projects requiring navigation through Byzantine approval processes.
• Despite bipartisan support and significant funding like President Biden's 2021 infrastructure bill, actual implementation faces overwhelming bureaucratic hurdles—a simple broadband internet expansion requires a 14-step process beginning with FCC mapping.
• Legal complexity creates overlapping jurisdictions where multiple agencies can individually veto projects, creating a "vetocracy" where nothing substantial gets built.
• The environmental review process, while well-intentioned, has transformed from a reasonable safeguard into a tool for indefinite project delay through legal challenges.
• Many developed nations have experienced distinct eras of building capacity: rapid development (pre-1970s), increasing regulation (1970s-2000s), and now a period of near-paralysis for major infrastructure projects.
• Even when funding exists and political will aligns, the implementation systems have become so convoluted that transformative projects rarely materialize—as evidenced by California's high-speed rail debacle.

The High-Speed Rail Debacle

• California's high-speed rail project represents perhaps the most visible failure of American infrastructure ambition, with $33 billion invested yet minimal actual construction completed.
• What began as a visionary transportation link between major California cities has devolved into a limited Central Valley segment with uncertain prospects for completion.
• The project encountered countless regulatory hurdles, environmental challenges, land acquisition problems, and escalating costs that exemplify why America struggles to build transformative infrastructure.
• This stands in stark contrast to countries like China, which has built approximately 23,500 miles of high-speed rail in roughly the same timeframe that California has struggled to complete even a fraction of its planned system.
• The rail project demonstrates how process requirements have overwhelmed project outcomes—the regulatory framework designed to ensure quality has instead prevented anything from being built at all.

How Technology Has Improved Our Lives

• Despite building challenges, technological advancement has dramatically improved living standards—the modern middle-class person lives better than historical elites like Thomas Jefferson in meaningful ways.
• Medical advances, transportation, communication, and food production technologies have created unprecedented prosperity and comfort for average citizens that would astonish previous generations.
• World War II demonstrated how technological mobilization could transform society, with initiatives like the Manhattan Project showing humanity's capacity to innovate rapidly when barriers were removed.
• Vannevar Bush, as an "Elder Statesman of American Science" in the 1930s and 1940s, recognized that scientific advancement would determine national success, laying conceptual groundwork for institutions like the Internet.
• This historical perspective shows both what was once achieved and what might be possible again if we reform systems to enable rather than obstruct innovation.
• The critical difference between past success and current stagnation isn't creativity or technical capacity, but rather the institutional and regulatory frameworks that either enable or prevent implementation.

NIH as a Case Study for Why Things Are Broken

• The National Institutes of Health exemplifies systemic problems in biomedical innovation—despite substantial funding, it increasingly fails to produce transformative research.
• Young scientists with potentially world-changing ideas face nearly insurmountable barriers to funding, as grant systems favor established researchers pursuing incremental improvements rather than breakthrough concepts.
• Scientists waste approximately 40% of their time on paperwork and grant applications rather than actual research—an enormous misallocation of our brightest scientific minds.
• Thompson advocates for a "founder mode" reform that would give exceptional scientists "golden tickets"—10-15 years of secure funding to pursue potentially revolutionary ideas without constant grant reapplications.
• This approach would parallel successful innovation models in the private sector, where breakthrough companies often emerge from giving talented individuals resources and autonomy rather than bureaucratic oversight.
• The field of "metascience"—the scientific study of how science itself operates—increasingly shows our current research institutions are suboptimally designed for producing transformative innovation.
• Reform would focus on creating institutional frameworks that maximize time spent on actual research while minimizing administrative burdens that currently consume scientific careers.

How To Make Real Progress

• Progress, as Thompson defines it, means "the elimination of pain and increased power for most people"—a definition that centers human flourishing rather than merely technological capability.
• Environmental technology represents a particularly promising frontier, with innovations like carbon capture potentially addressing existential threats while creating new sources of value.
• Making real progress requires reforming not just what we build but how we build—streamlining processes while maintaining necessary protections.
• The current system's failure isn't in identifying worthy goals, but in creating implementation pathways that can actually achieve those goals in reasonable timeframes.
• Progress requires balancing competing values rather than allowing any single consideration (environmental, procedural, or jurisdictional) to function as an absolute veto over forward movement.
• Technology and policy must advance together—neither alone can create the conditions for widespread abundance in the future.

The Role of Hard Tech

• "Hard tech" refers to physical technological innovations beyond software—areas like energy, transportation, and materials science that can transform the physical world.
• AI shows particular promise in accelerating hard tech development by mapping complex relationships, such as understanding the molecular effects of FDA-approved drugs to enable better medicine.
• Technological convergence between AI and physical sciences could dramatically accelerate innovation cycles in areas that have traditionally required decades of development.
• Hard tech represents the frontier where America most needs to overcome its building crisis, as software alone cannot solve our most pressing physical and environmental challenges.
• Our innovation systems must be reformed to specifically address the longer development timelines and higher capital requirements of hard tech compared to software.

The Abundance Agenda

• The Abundance Agenda calls for fundamental reform of technology policies to enable rather than obstruct innovation.
• Current "push funding" approaches—where governments select winners through subsidies—should be complemented by "pull funding" that rewards results regardless of who achieves them.
• Pull funding creates incentive prizes or guaranteed purchases for whoever solves specific challenges, mimicking the successful model used for rocket development.
• The agenda requires removing unnecessary regulatory barriers while maintaining those truly essential for public safety and environmental protection.
• Real abundance requires both technological innovation and distribution systems that ensure benefits reach the broader population rather than concentrating in already-privileged groups.

Advice for Founders 

• Thompson encourages founders to dedicate their careers to building something unique that no one else could create, rather than becoming just another consumer in the mass market.
• Follow your genuine curiosity rather than chasing trends, as authentic passion will sustain you through the inevitable challenges of innovation.
• Focus on hard tech challenges like green cement, carbon capture, and robotics that address fundamental human needs and will be remembered long after ephemeral consumer products.
• The most meaningful work often lies in solving problems that will matter for decades rather than months—consider the long-term impact of your scarce time and talents.
• Cultivate niche expertise in areas that genuinely fascinate you, as specialized knowledge in emerging fields will likely become increasingly valuable as those domains mature.

The path to abundance requires both individual and collective action. Support policy reforms that streamline building processes while maintaining essential protections, and advocate for research institutions that prioritize breakthrough innovation over administrative compliance.

We can create a future of genuine abundance rather than artificial scarcity by reclaiming our capacity for transformative innovation and adapting it to contemporary global challenges.