# §Type I and Type II Progress Imagine human capability as a high dimensional blob.[^1] There are some people who live on the surface of the blob (let’s call it the [[Knowledge frontier]] ) - they have access to the best of the knowledge and resources humanity has to offer. *Pushing this frontier and expanding maximum possible capabilities is Type I Progress*. There are many people who don’t live on the surface of the capability blob - most people who live in ‘developing’ nations, for example. *Actions that expand these people’s capabilities towards the frontier are Type II Progress*  As William Gibson said [“The future is here — it’s just not very evenly distributed”]([William Gibson - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson)) You could think of Type I progress as expanding what the future is, and Type II progress as distributing that future. There are even some people who might live a little beyond the surface in some dimensions. These are the innovators, the creators of new knowledge. This is a great example of Type I and II progress  Here’s a simplified version of the above chart. You can see how from 1960->2006 Northeast Asia and North America were pushing the capability frontier forward (on the total possible output per Hectare and total output per worker respectively.) China as a whole clearly made progress but stayed well within the capability frontier.  In [[mokyrLeverRichesTechnological1992]] Mokyr writes: `“At any moment there is a large gap between average and best practice technology; reducing this gap by disseminating the techniques used by producers at the cutting edge of knowledge is technological progress without invention.” ` Type II progress is this progress without invention. This distinction may seem trivial but [[Type I and Type II progress are often talked about in the same context]]. [[Explicitly calling out the distinction between Type I and Type II progress and thinking about them separately will lead to more action]] [^1]: According to a mathematician friend, the correct term for this is a “compact” but for the sake of evocative language I’m going to stick with “blob” <!-- #index --> - - - References: [The Illustrated Guide to a Phd](https://www.notion.so/innovate/The-illustrated-guide-to-a-Ph-D-e4b0ed9ae1b74de9b8ee981f27db381d) [Productivity Growth in Agriculture](https://www.notion.so/innovate/Productivity-Growth-in-Agriculture-An-International-Perspective-Google-Books-6f2195eda23d40f8ba21890fcc189201) Images  [Capability Blob](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/v7YtSoUqTzwIAkFUQeN06AtVwqHazuySotlmrI1thsCMDx8bAh1dnL2-G2KPyQ15NQqNRG9s1yHnIXsoXb6NHgkrrKI9WKnJGCCbtmOoVvRi_7xIVYT7OOWl7tZDCJJx00OKE4F-DnNZhhzsxqmq2cZGoVIc_sLvSxXv6qUH3cJiELraDztvEY1gxmHTy_trBFOIxpS53GlEkAq257PuYYvFxGjiUtuQxQpj4U7gPo0zwWD8L64eE-dnQmaW_ZEgxMi5s45LjvDYeOz12gdYB8zJZEoZRkHOxIcHWBte55YWpXi_JXTJuEKeE427ZU-ZbPbvCzf7YTvfL2q6U4xiaC9ue9Z_ec0l0KoIlCNuOkhKAZZXTsmI6tMZ5AMeNFAjPUG8utDG5ZbjEhHUaudUGu_5lfbG2E8TJBWgNq72MP9M3lIP-leSkIkmCkzPazEcBDDoRi-0C8OlgsdlbPcWVArgtarrzYcWP14nWa9gP0oGKUmjClh1rGY51YI5FEhKNMrBmrlXLwS9X_yxFY3LfOCDvmXsIXIszm8OVETrIXtbiU-SqMAjgnr-PkUjfIGFIa3cX_tZSr5s2KkQqP5ZwOBnsVCpFKsXd2XzBq4kgQwNota4h4D4aSJNmaHatPhSGywGtDEEyEpCz0KhGiK7OrO1o8hLfuY2a6F5p53NhP0SNB1_lxl3CSFhu3Vmqam1ULTnrDemeO2So6Ri3aIULsTPgmeQkq9e0gG-S7Mc6migYdXSrg=w898-h947-no) [Simplified Farm Output](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KnjVQiEJKUa5n-saje01_MSCME3XOgtKkt6pMV4E8C-pILQkh2axGI_Y7hO2gmL0PdVanhGsUX78qu0YJa9uZrfmhRwY1LrfZWdW4srlsn8LYciadYNfozpT-jviqkG7eJRWQY09h65xhv4T1TfYtdu_TuEHSic-5iA7DzhdwBcmpw89r-FSQ4Vv2BU5DGcsJlX9adCinYGF9r8rRjk0IV4lmQ-7303dI36qQqM8bCBWv2SYK55Y8HPczPt5dohXIcN0pUcjF8Tso9Kxr9W4ZsbILFmIHhrznUPESC51CfqeYNIOcvG_zdlLot1LQKNjgWiqGj7dg6sq0AHfkn0pzwmniu1JS2r5i4h6YtWFFI0d64d9aH5jPfdZbTlIDi3O3qY5s-b4wVAuZA5xPaPJ_P7N9a_JkR-7PH_vcecEN2_6BtFXVtp7XPVMbiPke1pVsVWqHVkxMgHDbABY8Vm7E-tM_Fwv7f7Ki6SOTY54H7H9c6LJQaHwEPHcIqxSwpmVvwMhXV4u492hVW0OzP25NLmi3zfUNSIBoz8MmrPej7_iQXvhT59-MVkNBQV7yD79xDldiZh2yLBP1gTyEtK723gLIjq9rjF9b_VK8JXKaLZO63hQJN4jMYZxWWjmZsFyZWq7chyuhfZtwTVRhrWR9az5noKVGkG8FP3ga5Pl28QWZitrjC4kAmITAvapE6usPTXUQXFOzKS_KyKDmqdn6-CkN-0gjIcpGjHyhZ2J-hgkROd27w=w1483-h804-no) --- References: [The Illustrated Guide to a Phd](https://www.notion.so/innovate/The-illustrated-guide-to-a-Ph-D-e4b0ed9ae1b74de9b8ee981f27db381d) [Productivity Growth in Agriculture](https://www.notion.so/innovate/Productivity-Growth-in-Agriculture-An-International-Perspective-Google-Books-6f2195eda23d40f8ba21890fcc189201) Images  [Capability Blob](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/v7YtSoUqTzwIAkFUQeN06AtVwqHazuySotlmrI1thsCMDx8bAh1dnL2-G2KPyQ15NQqNRG9s1yHnIXsoXb6NHgkrrKI9WKnJGCCbtmOoVvRi_7xIVYT7OOWl7tZDCJJx00OKE4F-DnNZhhzsxqmq2cZGoVIc_sLvSxXv6qUH3cJiELraDztvEY1gxmHTy_trBFOIxpS53GlEkAq257PuYYvFxGjiUtuQxQpj4U7gPo0zwWD8L64eE-dnQmaW_ZEgxMi5s45LjvDYeOz12gdYB8zJZEoZRkHOxIcHWBte55YWpXi_JXTJuEKeE427ZU-ZbPbvCzf7YTvfL2q6U4xiaC9ue9Z_ec0l0KoIlCNuOkhKAZZXTsmI6tMZ5AMeNFAjPUG8utDG5ZbjEhHUaudUGu_5lfbG2E8TJBWgNq72MP9M3lIP-leSkIkmCkzPazEcBDDoRi-0C8OlgsdlbPcWVArgtarrzYcWP14nWa9gP0oGKUmjClh1rGY51YI5FEhKNMrBmrlXLwS9X_yxFY3LfOCDvmXsIXIszm8OVETrIXtbiU-SqMAjgnr-PkUjfIGFIa3cX_tZSr5s2KkQqP5ZwOBnsVCpFKsXd2XzBq4kgQwNota4h4D4aSJNmaHatPhSGywGtDEEyEpCz0KhGiK7OrO1o8hLfuY2a6F5p53NhP0SNB1_lxl3CSFhu3Vmqam1ULTnrDemeO2So6Ri3aIULsTPgmeQkq9e0gG-S7Mc6migYdXSrg=w898-h947-no) [Simplified Farm Output](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KnjVQiEJKUa5n-saje01_MSCME3XOgtKkt6pMV4E8C-pILQkh2axGI_Y7hO2gmL0PdVanhGsUX78qu0YJa9uZrfmhRwY1LrfZWdW4srlsn8LYciadYNfozpT-jviqkG7eJRWQY09h65xhv4T1TfYtdu_TuEHSic-5iA7DzhdwBcmpw89r-FSQ4Vv2BU5DGcsJlX9adCinYGF9r8rRjk0IV4lmQ-7303dI36qQqM8bCBWv2SYK55Y8HPczPt5dohXIcN0pUcjF8Tso9Kxr9W4ZsbILFmIHhrznUPESC51CfqeYNIOcvG_zdlLot1LQKNjgWiqGj7dg6sq0AHfkn0pzwmniu1JS2r5i4h6YtWFFI0d64d9aH5jPfdZbTlIDi3O3qY5s-b4wVAuZA5xPaPJ_P7N9a_JkR-7PH_vcecEN2_6BtFXVtp7XPVMbiPke1pVsVWqHVkxMgHDbABY8Vm7E-tM_Fwv7f7Ki6SOTY54H7H9c6LJQaHwEPHcIqxSwpmVvwMhXV4u492hVW0OzP25NLmi3zfUNSIBoz8MmrPej7_iQXvhT59-MVkNBQV7yD79xDldiZh2yLBP1gTyEtK723gLIjq9rjF9b_VK8JXKaLZO63hQJN4jMYZxWWjmZsFyZWq7chyuhfZtwTVRhrWR9az5noKVGkG8FP3ga5Pl28QWZitrjC4kAmITAvapE6usPTXUQXFOzKS_KyKDmqdn6-CkN-0gjIcpGjHyhZ2J-hgkROd27w=w1483-h804-no) [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/§Type+I+and+Type+II+Progress) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/§Type+I+and+Type+II+Progress)