A lack of challenges and hardships is just as big an obstacle to the realization of one's potential as facing hardships so tough they cannot be overcome. This applies to individuals and cultures alike.
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Humans develop their full cognitive potential in an environment that is complex & challenging, without being overwhelming. Similarly, the big technological leaps of past civilizations have occurred in response to environmental constraints that were challenging, but not too harsh.
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In the first few millennia of the history of civilization, natural environmental constraints were the main driver of (and limit to) human ingenuity. New technology arose from the need to survive in challenging environments.
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Starting in the Antiquity, inter-cultural conflict & cooperation replaced nature as the main catalyser of progress. War, trade, competition started shaping the curriculum of civilization.
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I would go as far as saying that the particular environmental and historical circumstances of a civilization program the direction and speed of its progress in an almost deterministic way
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The need to rise up to the existential challenge of climate change will likely guide the next chapter of our progress over the next few centuries
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Wars are as harsh as it gets and they have caused tech advances (e.g. nuclear power and rockets) that would not have have happened otherwise
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War strikes me as harsh. IMO, the greatest breakthroughs of the past century occurred under vast pressure.
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I think the constraints of the environment and the constraints of trade, war, competition, climate change etc. also weaponize progress towards those specifically those goals, which can be problematic in certain contexts.
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For example, the constraint of competition has in the past caused humanity to target goals that are negative on net, but maximize outmaneuvering competition. Nuclear weapons could possibly be considered a method of outmaneuvering the constraint of war (through MAD)
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