There are many approaches that people use in deciding which order to obtain the various village technologies. Medicine will keep your villagers healthier and they will live longer, but harvesting provides even more food at level 3, since the villagers will learn how to fish. That's important if you want to support more villagers. That's why a lot of people play the game many times, trying out new strategies each time.

The fastest way to accumulate research points is to keep the same villagers working at the table and building up skill as scientists. The more they research, the more points they produce. And you can increase the number of researchers once you have a good food supply and can grow your population.