Actually I think what drives things onward and upward is a combination of laziness and greed.

New things get invented to enable us to take it easy - but then the greed kicks in, and we realize that we can use them instead to accumulate more loot and possessions, and we end up working harder than ever. Which means we then have to come up with more more clever ways of cutting down work and getting a bit of a rest... and so on.

The engine of progress...

"...we'd have never even got past the stone age if that attitude had been widespread." I suspect that if we were all hardworking and abstemious by nature, we probably still would be in the Stone Age. And that might not such a bad thing either. The planet would be in much better shape. And the music and the songs would very likely be great, because that's one part of life where laziness and greed aren't too important (leaving aside the odd electronic tuner).