Progress comes from free experimentation, evaluation, and evolution. It does not come via statist intelligent design.

From Progressivism vs. Dynamism, 2/13 by Arnold Kling.  Subheading "Beware of government-led change."

The belief that dynamism comes from government strikes me as off base. It is the thesis of Mariana Mazzucato’s The Entrepreneurial State.

Almost a quarter century ago, Virginia Postrel published The Future and its Enemies. That book advocates for dynamism. But unlike Smith and other smug advocates for active government, Postrel articulated the libertarian view that dynamism comes from decentralized experimentation.

Progressives are misguided about progress. If you want a dynamic society, don’t root for government to lead the way. Instead, root for government to create a background of order that permits progress to proceed.

I have an aphorism that progress comes via the three e’s: experimentation, evaluation, and evolution. It does not come via intelligent design.

Most new ideas are wrong. The key to progress is to test new ideas carefully, using a process that keeps the good ideas and rejects the bad ones.

Experimentation means trying many ideas. Evaluation means measuring whether or not an idea worked. Evolution means keeping the ideas that worked and rejecting the bad ones.

Read the whole thing.