by Jason Crawford · April 30, 2024 · 2 min read
Today we’re opening applications for the 2024 cohort of The Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive, an 8-week program for aspiring progress writers to start or grow a blog.
Last year, nearly 500 people applied to the inaugural program. The 19 fellows who completed the program have sung the program’s praises as “life-changing” and “accelerating my career path as a progress intellectual.” They’ve started new Substacks and doubled their writing productivity. They’ve written about urbanism, immigration, defense-tech, meta-science, FDA reform, blue-color jobs, NEPA, AI regulation, pharmaceutical innovation, and more.
Now, you can join this optimistic intellectual community. You will launch (or re-launch) a blog/Substack, get into a regular writing habit, improve your writing, and make progress on building your audience.
You will meet and learn from progress studies leaders, authors, and industry experts. You’ll participate in a structured eight-week course on How to Think Like a Writer, which will teach you how to write more, create writing habits, and develop a writing system. You’ll write and publish four essays, one every other week, and you’ll receive feedback from professional editors, the Roots of Progress team, and your peers. At the end of the program, you’ll meet your peers in person in San Francisco, and get to attend the 2024 progress conference, where you’ll join authors, technologists, policy experts, academics, nonprofit leaders, and storytellers.
Why: To keep progress going—in science, technology, and industry—we have to believe that it is is possible and desirable. Today much of society has lost that belief, and lacks a bold, ambitious vision for the future.
It’s time for a new generation of writers and creatives to help the world understand and appreciate progress. The Roots of Progress Fellowship is the talent development program for these intellectuals.
Themes: In addition to a general focus on progress studies, this year’s fellowship features two themes: AI and “heavy industry” (manufacturing, construction, transportation, logistics, energy, defense, etc.) We will accept fellows writing on any progress-related topic, but will give preference for a handful of spots to applicants focusing on these areas, and we will have dedicated programming for these tracks.
Advisors: We have a fantastic group of advisors for you to meet and learn from:
Progress thinkers, writers, and media leaders, including Max Roser (Our World in Data), Tyler Cowen (Mercatus Center), Virginia Postrel (author, The Future and Its Enemies), Noah Smith (Noahpinion), Tomas Pueyo (Uncharted Territories), and Chandler Tuttle (Freethink Media)
Industry experts, including Andrej Karpathy (formerly of Tesla and OpenAI), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), Bob McGrew (OpenAI), Brian Potter (Institute for Progress), Delian Asparouhov (Varda Space Industries), Holden Karnofsky (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Kanjun Qiu (Imbue), and Timothy B. Lee (Understanding AI)
Writing and audience-building experts and professional editors, including Rob Tracinski, who is teaching the 8-week writing course
Who: This program may be for you if you’re excited about progress studies and you love to write.
Maybe you’d like to explore a career in writing about progress, or maybe you’re already blogging but would like to get to the next level—find your own topic area, increase your productivity, get more plugged into the community, and grow your audience.
If you have a background in and are passionate about AI or heavy industry, please apply to those specific tracks: it will be great to have a community of people with similar focused interests to support each other.
Commitment: 10–15 hours a week, for 8 weeks.
You’ll use the time to read, to write, to participate in discussions with experts, to provide editing and feedback to your peers, and to participate in group meetings.
There is no cost to you.
When: The program runs August 15–October 20, with participation in the 2024 Progress Conference in San Francisco October 17–20. Applications are now open, with rolling admissions; final deadline is June 7.
Special thanks to program sponsors Alpha School and the Cosmos Institute for helping to make this program possible!
Learn more and apply: 2024 Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive
Comment: Progress Forum, LessWrong, Reddit
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