There are other analyses saying similar things about the slowdown of science, but Noah Smith argued (persuasively, to me) that this paper's metric likely just measures changing norms around citation.

I think the best argument for abundance as a spiritual good is that it's allowed us to widen our circle of compassion. Once we stop seeing the world as zero sum, we see that others unlike us deserve moral consideration. 

Hi all, I'm Nathaniel. I'm a data scientist and health policy researcher in DC. 

As I've published more in the academic literature, applied for research funding, and subjected myself to pre-publication peer review, I've seen just how suboptimal these mechanisms for doing science are. Reading about the surprisingly shallow history of scientific publication has helped me to feel like I have some agency in changing how it's done. My main interests within progress studies are thus around meta-science and exploring new ways of prioritizing and rewarding research.