I rememeber back when I started my first game it felt like it was taking FOREVER to gain more tech points. I personally wanted to have at least 3 really good farmers working on the food issue and to keep the population up I had two women nursing which only left like 3 people on research! I thought I'd NEVER be able to get the 3rd level of ANYTHING.

My own strategy was to focus on food first - so I had people I babysat to keep them dedicated to farming, and got that 3rd level first. Once the food supply was secure I focused on researching and the occasional breeding (that kissy noise is too funny!). Once your population starts to grow and you can focus more on research the tech points start rolling in. Random events might help too so choose wisely! As has been said before, how you want to work your game is up to you - and I'm going to restart mine and try playing a whole DIFFERENT way this time to see how things go. That's the fun of this type of game!!

Good luck!