Episode 2252: How to Unstick the Future

Mar 1, 2025

Keith Teare, a tech commentator and author of the THAT WAS THE WEEK newsletter, dives into the relationship between civilization and technological progress. He highlights how innovation is essential for a thriving future and critiques current societal stagnation. Teare discusses David Brooks’ thought-provoking piece on progress and reflects on America’s immobility, urging a reimagining of belief in future possibilities. The conversation also touches on the evolving media landscape and the transformative role of AI in democratizing coding.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Civilization and Technology

Civilization is deeply interconnected with technological progress.
Innovation enables human advancement, and government's role should diminish as abundance increases.

INSIGHT

Defining Civilization

Civilization is a process of constantly improving the average citizen's life.
This progress is evident in things like access to goods, global travel, and communication.

INSIGHT

Government's Role

Progressives, aiming to use government for good, have inadvertently created an incompetent system.
Government's role should shrink as technological abundance grows, not due to political ideology.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

In today’s THAT WAS THE WEEK tech newsletter, Keith Teare asks what “civilization” is good for. Triggered by David Brooks’ “We Can Achieve Great Things” NYTimes piece, Keith’s editorial this week focuses on how we can “earn” the future through constant innovation. The problem - as everyone from Keith Teare to David Brooks to KeenOnAmerica guest Yoni Appelbaum all acknowledge - is that America has become stuck in camps, routines and ideologies. So how to unstick America? How to reestablish belief once again in the future?

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Here are the 5 Keen On America take-aways from my conversation this week with Keith Teare:

* Civilization and Technology: Keith argues that civilization is deeply interconnected with technological progress, suggesting that innovation has historically enabled human advancement and that government's role should naturally diminish as abundance increases.

* David Brooks' Essay on Progress: We discuss Brooks' New York Times piece "We Can Achieve Great Things," which examines how progressives have built systems that inadvertently render government ineffective, and the need for a compelling narrative about the desired future.

* The "Stuck" Society: We explore Yoni Appelbaum's argument that America has become immobile, with people no longer moving for opportunity and becoming "stuck" in their locations, which contradicts the traditional American dream.

* AI Democratizing Coding: We discuss how AI tools are allowing non-coders to build applications, with Keith sharing his personal experience creating an app without knowing the programming language Swift, suggesting this might enable individuals to build significant businesses.

* AI Competition Landscape: Our conversation covers recent AI developments, including Perplexity's move to create an AI web browser, OpenAI's GPT-4.5 Orion launch (which Keith acknowledges has been rushed to market), and the intensifying competition between companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and others in the rapidly evolving AI space.

Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe