{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Origins of Efficiency - The Glories of the Modern World","description":"We have a lot of nice things. We\u2019re really good at making nice things. We should preserve these nice things. But also nothing lasts forever? The Origins of Efficiency By: Brian Potter Published: 2025 384 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The clever and incremental ways we\u2019ve vastly increased humanity\u2019s ability to make stuff. We\u2019re constantly finding ways to build stuff cheaper, faster, and with fewer resources. What's the author's angle? Potter is probably best known for his Substack Construction Physics, which covers infrastructure, manufacturing, and building stuff in general. He also works at the Institute for Progress. Put those two together and you\u2019ve got someone who\u2019s a big fan of material progress, or what is sometimes referred to as a techno-optimist.  Who should read this book? If you want some amazing stories of how processes have improved, and a stirring defense of the modern world and all its wonders this is a great book. If you\u2019re looking for higher level reflection on what it all means, particularly any sort of caution around progress and efficiency, then this is not the book for you. Potter is definitely an \u201conward and upward!\u201d kind of guy. He does note that efficiency can\u2019t be applied everywhere, and that it\u2019s often constrained by other goals, like safety, but he still treats it as being inherently good.  What does the book have to say about the future? The book does point out that efficiency has become a \u201csociotechnical\u201d issue. Particularly in the West, we often make choices to constrain efficiency as part of some broader societal goal. Potter doesn\u2019t talk very much about China, but one could imagine that their drive for efficiency is not constrained in the same way and, going forward, this could give them the edge in our ongoing competition.  Specific thoughts: Fantastic, awesome, hopeful, and scary ","author_name":"We Are Not Saved","author_url":"http:\/\/wearenotsaved.com","html":"