Sponsored Ad - The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

In a world where pessimism has become the fad with everyone actively complaining about corrupt politicians and inefficient bureaucracy, adverse climate change and rising population, increasing epidemics and power hungry corporations, depression ridden adults and collapsing markets, nuclear disasters and disappearing wildlife, Matt Ridley's The rational optimist comes off as a reinvigorating breath of fresh air. The book primarily proclaims that not all is as bad as it sounds which I feel must be reason enough for anyone to read it. And if that isn't good enough then it goes beyond it to cleverly argue that things are actually getting better and will most probably continue to do so. I personally feel the optimism that ridley propagates based on scientific research and rational observations should be one we all employ and embed into our mindset while continuing to live our lives and change the world. So I did not try to verify the sources of information based on which Ridley has drawn such absurd optimistic conclusions, as many might feel but I figured he is a scientist after all and knows a good research from a bad one. Besides I have didn't time for digging around so much. And granted there are many issues currently afflicting our earth and humanity but after having read the book I do not feel like discrediting any of them. On the contrary I feel more enlightened in that the book has given a different way of looking at things - a global perspective if I may. "The reasons for the multitude of problems that persist today may or in most cases were the solutions of the problems of yesterday". But it is because those solutions are behind us that we can afford to crib about the current existing problems. This has been my key insight form the book. This does not in any way undermine the existing problems that need to be solved but it has made me feel like before impulsively bludgeoning existing systems for their seemingly innumerable flaws, I need to take a step back, calm my nerves and try to look at things objectively in order to form an informed opinion. This book has highlighted the importance of considering global perspective into matters keeping in mind the interconnectedness of the world we live in that is our greatest strength and propeller of prosperity and well being for mankind. Exchange and specialization are referred to extensively in the book as Ridley ever so wonderfully with his sharp wit argues the immense impact they have had on the growth of mankind. Every event that facilitated exchange and specialization exacerbated growth and prosperity and every event that hindered them ameliorated progress. This is explained with examples across different domains like Agriculture and farming, Urbanization, Climate, Corporations, government etc. Bottom up approach to evolution as opposed to top down imposition is the way forward he claims. All said and done, I feel ever more than before eager to get on with contributing my bit into fixing the problems of mankind but with the hope and optimism that it will get better and that it has been for centuries. And I can confidently now claim thanks to this book, that my optimism is not some romantic emotional chant about trying to be positive but that it is based on sound scientific reasoning keeping the bigger picture in mind. I am now officially a rational optimist. I dare you to be one!

Good book but could have been truncated in so many parts. Great stats but presented with aid of charts/figures may have helped.

It will help us to understand how humanity evolved and went through disastrous events and still can grow, and how technology helped to do so.

This is by far the densest books I have ever read , it is full of facts no nonsense optimistic book . Great fan of author highly recommended!!!

I just love the quality of paper on the book. In terms of writing, the book has a hell lots of data and information. Worth a buy!

This book really changes your perception towards different issues of the word.

The book made look at the development of mankind in a holistic way and made me hopeful of a better world in spite of all the fear of climate change and its effects on the lives of humans. I loved the section on innovation, about the hopes for development of Africa and particularly the concluding chapter

Received a slightly old and dusty copy of the book .. little dirt on the edges

Does a wonderful job of explaining why many focus on pessimism and why we shouldn’t. Ridley paints the realistic picture of why life on earth with our fellow humanity has done and will continue to do amazing things.

Matt Ridley é editor de ciência da Economist e explica lindamente, com muitos dados e informações históricas, como a humanidade está indo muito bem. O autor traz uma explicação interessante para o desenvolvimento físico, social e cultural do ser humano: a divisão do trabalho e o comércio. Boa leitura para começar o ano animado/a.

llego bien

Matthew White Ridley, the fifth Viscount Ridley, is a member of the British aristocracy. His family has been contributing to British intellectual and political life for generations. He is the ninth Matt Ridley to serve in the British parliament; his great grandfather Sir Edwin Lutyens was the architect who designed New Delhi in the 1920s; his great, great, great, great grandfather Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, created the Golden Retriever breed. He is married to the neuroscientist Professor Anya Hurlbert. They have two children and live on the family estate at Blagdon near Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Matt achieved a first class honours degree and a DPhil in zoology then worked for The Economist for nine years as a science writer, Washington correspondent and American editor. Nowadays, he writes regular columns for the Wall Street Journal and The Times. Matt Ridley has written six books: The Red Queen, about the evolution of sexual reproduction; The Origins of Virtue, which examines human trust and virtue, and how our instinct for social exchange enables us to reap the benefits of co-operation; Genome: the autobiography of a Species in 23 chapters; Nature via Nurture, how humans are free-willed yet motivated by instinct and culture; a biography of Francis Crick, the discoverer of the genetic code; and The Rational Optimist, about how prosperity evolves. In all, his books have sold over a million copies. In The Rational Optimist, Ridley argues that our prosperity is due to our willingness to trade with strangers. This enables the division of labour; it permits us to specialize, to work on things we are good at. That encourages us to innovate, to make tools and machines and processes that make our production more efficient. We trade ideas too; we learn skills from experts; we build on what has gone before; a communal intelligence develops. Prosperity increases exponentially. Trading relationships depend on trust and building reputations. If you can be trusted then more people will deal with you. Where trade flourishes, so do other virtues. Creativity and compassion were most evident in the great commercial cities of the past; it is the same today. Ridley contrasts the retreat of civil virtues under totalitarian regimes. There is increasing urbanization as people move to the cities where they can trade and be prosperous. Cities also provide more opportunity for interactions; innovators can meet and share ideas. Ridley is scathing about the pessimists such as Paul Ehrlich who are forever forecasting doom and gloom and never apologize when their predictions do not eventuate. He says that the pessimists always assume lineal continuation of current trends; they fail to take human innovation into account. Ridley’s intellect enables him to present challenging ideas in readily accessible language. His journalistic training shows, too. His text is replete with interesting and relevant statistics, stories and anecdotes. For example: The average South Korean lives 26 more years and earns 15 times what he did in 1955. It cost 4700 hours of work to buy a Model T Ford in 1908; a much superior car can be purchased today for 1000 hours work. In USA, in 1915, one-third of agricultural land was used to feed 21 million horses; tractors have freed this land for productive use. China’s highly coerced (one-child) birth rate decline since 1955 (from 5.59 to 1.73) is almost exactly mirrored by Sri Lanka’s largely voluntary one over the same period (5.70 to 1.88). Ridley describes our current situation as follows: Human beings are not only wealthier, but healthier, happier, cleaner, cleverer, kinder, freer, more peaceful and more equal than they have ever been. This is because the source of human innovation is, and has been for 100,000 years, not the individual inspiration through reason but collective intelligence evolving by trial and error resulting from the sharing of ideas through exchange and specialization. The secret of human prosperity is that everyone is working for everybody else. The prologue to the Rational Optimist , When Ideas Have Sex became a 16-minute TED conference talk and is available on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 2 million times. The Rational Optimist won the Hayek Prize 2011 and the Julian Simon award in 2012. It is a significant contribution to our understanding of life and prosperity.

El libro que los estatistas, totalitarios, activistas climáticos, ingenieros sociales y agoreros varios no quieren que leas.