About the book
Matt Ridley argues that human prosperity grows out of the habit of exchanging goods and services and the specialization that goes with it. Ridley, author of Genome and The Red Queen, notes that fewer than 10 million people lived on the planet over 10,000 years ago, while more than 6 billion do today, nearly all of them better fed, housed and protected from disease than their Stone Age ancestors. He traces that rise, which sped up sharply over the last two centuries, to trade built on trust, and rebuts pessimists, arguing that challenges like climate change and population growth can be overcome. The 2010 popular science book presents this process as cultural evolution that will keep raising living standards.
Mark Zuckerberg chose it for his A Year of Books series, and Rupert Murdoch said it was as stimulating as ever when he reread it after five years. Marc Andreessen praised its account of how the economy evolves and said it offers reasons for hope in dark times.
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This book has 6 recommendations
Mark Zuckerberg (CEO/Facebook)
My next book for A Year of Books is The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley.
Two of the books I've read this year -- The Better Angels of Our Nature: and Why Nations Fail -- have explored how social and economic progress work together to make the world better. The Better Angels argues for that the two feed off each other, whereas Why Nations Fail argues that social and political progress ultimately controls the economic progress a society makes. This next book argues the opposite -- that economic progress is the greater force is pushing society forward. I'm interested to see which idea resonates more after exploring both frameworks.
This is also the second one of Ridley's books I've read this year. Here's a photo from a few weeks back of me reading his book Genome with my dog Beast.
James Altucher (Founder/StockPickr)
Basically if you want to know the future, read Bold.
Supplement it with “Abundance” by the same two and “Tomorrowland” by Steven Kotler” and even “The Rational Optimist” by Matt Ridley.
I feel “Abundance” is like a sequel to “The Rational Optimist”. So I’m giving you four books with one recommendation.
Rupert Murdoch (CEO/News Corporation)
Re-read Matt Ridley's great book The Rational Optimist after 5 years. As stimulating as ever. Hope next book coming soon.
Naval Ravikant (CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList)
Getting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up [...] The Rational Optimist.
Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz)
Sparkling explanation of how the economy evolves, producing the glorious cornucopia of goods and services available all around us. How to feel good about the future even in dark times.
Steven Pinker (Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, author)
On Steven Pinker’s Steven Pinker recommends books to make you an optimist (The Guardian, by Steven Pinker)
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Mark Zuckerberg, James Altucher, Rupert Murdoch, Naval Ravikant, Marc Andreessen, Steven Pinker
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Often recommended alongside
- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters (4 shared recommenders)
- The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch (3 shared recommenders)
- High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove (2 shared recommenders)
- Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society by Nicholas Christakis (2 shared recommenders)
- Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2 shared recommenders)
- Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley (2 shared recommenders)
Appears in collections
Sources
- Why Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to read this book about 'idea sex'
- The Ten Most Important Books To Expand Your Brain
- Rupert Murdoch's Twitter Profile
- Naval Ravikant on The Tim Ferriss Show
- Twitter Thread: Books I've recently read and recommend
- Steven Pinker recommends books to make you an optimist (The Guardian, by Steven Pinker)