Growing acceptance of IVFSocial and policy change happens only incrementally for the vast majority of the time (i.e. at an equilibrium) but with interspersed periods of rapid change — a so-called punctuated equilibrium.Many factors can cause these large equilibrium shifts to alter public attitudes towards a subject and technical feasibility is one of them. As Nick Bostrom and Carl Shulman point out in their paper Embryo Selection for Cognitive Enhancement, public attitudes towards in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) dramatically increased as technological feasibility went from merely theoretical to widespread availability. Only 18% of Americans said they would personally use IVF in 1970 when it was not widely available to 53% in 2003.

For example, instead of trying to push for increases or decreases in the overall tax rate (an area that gets a lot of resistance from both sides), a strategy of pulling the rope sideways would involve aiming to increase the effectiveness with which it is spent. The social good from spending might be a consideration that is both more neglected, but also more tractable and easier to see changes in because both parties would prefer to see it spent more effectively. Pursuing neglected and tractable policy changes could be a route to finding more socially valuable ideas.