In 1937, he published an essay on technology called ""The dialectics of progress"" (in Dutch: ""De dialectiek van de vooruitgang"") in which he describes a phenomenon called the ""Law of the handicap of a head start"" (""Wet van de remmende voorsprong""), as part of the series ""The unfinished past"" (in Dutch: ""Het onvoltooid verleden""). This article was also published in German as "Dialektik des Fortschritts" in: "Mass und Wert. Zweimonatsschrift für freie deutsche Kultur" (eds. Thomas Mann and Konrad Falke), vol. 2 (Zurich, Switzerland, 1939).