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Matt Ridley's Latest & Greatest
Epigraph from Matt Ridley's new and magisterial The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves:
"This division of labor, from which so many advantages are derived, is not originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that general opulence to which it gives occasion. It is the necessary, though very slow and gradual, of a certain propensity in human nature which has in view no such extensive utility; the prosperity to truck, barter, exchange one thing for another."—Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
This is the essence of Smith's work, and the singular explanation of innovation. Innovation is driven by trading. Period. It is a singularly human trait, the origins of which are tens of thousands of years.
Of course our new tools, DARPANet, the Web, and more recently Social Media, are re-writing Smith's "slow and gradual."
It's not that you will necessarily learn anything "new" from this book, but you cannot help but learn a staggering amount about the innovation process among humans. To me, that learning is of the utmost practical value.
NB1: F.A. Hayek's felicitous phrase for "all this" is "spontaneous discovery process;" the key word is "spontaneous."
NB2: My longtime "bedrock"/"only certain belief" is: "He who tries the most stuff wins"/"Screw around vigorously"/"Ready. FIRE. Aim." I am now ready to revise it to: "He who makes the most oddball connections and tries the most stuff wins."
NB3: One of my five greatest literary indulgences ever is a 1st edition of The Wealth of Nations.
(Above: Susan and I move "up the hill" to our cottage/former "sap house" [where maple sap was boiled to produce syrup] for the summer, from about May 1 to October 10. Below: View of our "upper pond" from front door of said sap house—this morning at 6:30 a.m.)
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Comments
"Innovation is driven by trading. Period. It is a singularly human trait, the origins of which are tens of thousands of years."
How do explain the invention of calculus?
What about e=mc squared?
Innovation is built into molecules, quarks, and photons. How else do explain DNA? - The idea that innovation
is a singular human trait is absurd and arrogant. We just reflect the drive toward innovation that is in the universe.
Get over yourself, fellow human.
Posted by zorro at May 20, 2010 1:43 PM
"Get over yourself, fellow human."
LOVING that, Zorro. Beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful... Tom, can I live at your house? I'll just live in a closet or cupboard, I don't eat much! Seriously, those photos make me want to inhale the photo itself. Aaaahhhhh.
Posted by gayle at May 20, 2010 2:03 PM
There would have been no need for calculus without the barter which led to primitive math which led to ..., etc. The point is that we advance as our life becomes more complex, and more people are exposed to new people and new combinations' and thence produce new combinations and complications which, courtesy Darwin, move us forward over time.
Get over it Zorro, my fellow human being.
(Zorro, have you ever said anything positive about anything to any of your fellow human beings? How many of us are on your bile-spewing list? You are always welcome here, and often your insights are usefully provoking. But I am flabbergasted by your unremitting negativity.)
Posted by tom peters at May 20, 2010 2:16 PM
"...the drive toward innovation that is in the universe."
Hmmm?
Over time, all things trend to the normal.
DNA usually replicates itself: changes to the pattern are usually an accident... or is this innovation?
Posted by Mark JF at May 20, 2010 2:23 PM
I think Hayek's "spontaneous discovery process" is about a string of accidents, some small share of which make it into our DNA. (And of course the failed accidents play a hunmgous role as well.)
Posted by tom peters at May 20, 2010 2:36 PM
Gayle, it took me years to understand how great a place I am lucky enough to inhabit.
Indeed, we do have a few closets, and consistent with my new lease on life, I'm cleaning a few of them out ...
Posted by tom peters at May 20, 2010 2:38 PM
What the pictures can't show is the waich renders the new lease on life as, every day, literally breathtaking!ich spring springs from an endless winter, why in wh
Posted by tom peters at May 20, 2010 2:40 PM
"DNA usually replicates itself: changes to the pattern are usually an accident... or is this innovation?"
People like the Biologist Eric Lander refer the the processes developed by cells as engineering. What happens in DNA is accidental, but these accidents do create things that are new and useful - which is all that innovation is.
And trade is not the main force that moves us or the universe. In human society, it is clearly one of the forces for innovation, but to say is it 'the' reason for innovation is incredibly arrogant and self aggrandizing -especially if you happen to be famous for promoting trade. Many of the discoveries in science and mathematics were driven by people trying to understand the infinite, (Newtons motivation) - this would be more of a spiritual drive than one based on trade. The computer was invented during the work the allies did to break German secret codes in WWII.
Sorry Tom but "Innovation is driven by trading. Period. It is a singularly human trait, the origins of which are tens of thousands of years." is simply wrong and simplistic and arrogant and myopic.
Posted by zorro at May 20, 2010 5:35 PM
But Tom, I thought you didn't like Economists and here you are saying how much you enjoyed Adam Smith!
I still buy the statement, "Necessity is the mother of invention."
Grant
Posted by Grant at May 20, 2010 6:27 PM
Tom,
Thanks for the provocative post!
The innovation (possibly accidental) and energy released by entropy is astounding as well!
Relationships are a basic and essential form of trade (sometimes beneficial and sometimes not as comments often reveal!).
And, I applaud your bravery...living in "the sap house" ;-)
Posted by Randy Bosch at May 20, 2010 6:38 PM
Grant, not sure they called them "economists" in those days :-)
Posted by tom peters at May 21, 2010 11:42 AM
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I saw an interview with Ridley and his position is that we are too pessimistic. For example, in the 1970's everybody predicted the end of oil, but that never happened. So, that being the case, an optimist in the 1970's would have been someone who said "We won't run out of oil. All that will happen in the next 30 years is we will have two wars in the middle east over oil, one of which could go on for 15 years or more and a major US city will be attacked using funds from petrodollars. On top of that, there will be a major oil leak in the Gulf of mexico that the oil companies will not have the power to halt.
We would have been better off if we had been more pessimistic - pessimistic enough so the feeling of pessimism felt lousy enough so we do something to alleviate the feeling by making making the changes needed so we stop relying on the most unstable part of the world. Instead we elected the eternal optimist Ronald Reagan who began the process of running us aground in debt and who shut down the energy programs begun by Carter that had the goal of cutting our reliance on oil by 20% by the year 2000. So much for optimism.
Posted by zorro at May 24, 2010 6:42 PM