Change is not the same as progress. Change can worsen a situation as easily as it can make it better.
Evolution is more about change than progress: when some random variation occurs, it might give that new plant or animal an advantage, a disadvantage, or be completely irrelevant. We like to equate evolution with progress, but it’s much messier than that.
Progress is a vector. It’s change with a magnitude and direction. You want to see your bottom line going up. You want know that more people have enough to eat and not fewer.
Progress can take time to reveal itself; it’s not always clear right away if things are better or not. Even if things appear to be better, it’s often difficult to attribute that progress to the change you made. Maybe things got better because the weather improved or the local football team won the championship.
When you remove a pebble from a pile of rocks, the change can ripple out and restructure the whole pile. That can have unexpected consequences, like a landslide.
The same is true for changes you might make in the name of progress. You have to ask yourself what, exactly, is better now? Who is it better for? And are things now worse off somewhere else?
Change is relatively easy. Progress is tricky.
