I also work in embedded and this issue is also dear to me, seeing how I've been there dealing with doubt and uncertainty for the future and my place as a young

I also work in embedded and this issue is also dear to me, seeing how I've been there dealing with doubt and uncertainty for the future and my place as a young man in this world. That being said, I think that your view is wrong and that tfp _has_ been growing and we have become better at productivity. It's just that is was very localized, the inequalities in productivity are very high and a whole class of people that used to be productive are not anymore(because of various and very complex reasons). Also, I think we, as a species have become complacent and some of us are wired to function better in "crysis" mode than in a normal world. Maybe being normal is one of our contemporary ailments