Book Club Friday's (#20) - The Rational Optimist
About the author
Matt Ridley's books on science, the environment and economics altogether have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards. He has his own TED talk called: "When Ideas Have Sex" which has been viewed more than two million times. Ridley also writes a weekly column in The Times (London) and writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal. Before becoming a self-employed writer and businessman, Ridley gained BA and DPhil degrees from Oxford University and went to work for the Economist for nine years as science editor.
A little bit about the book
This book is really interesting and tackles the problem of pessimism when looking toward the macroeconomic and political future of humanity as a whole. Matt Ridley takes the approach of looking at history and human behaviour, which is uniquely interesting because it makes his claims and observations relatable. The topic of the background of human behaviour and especially consumer behaviour is a really interesting one, and it really hasn't changed or evolved much over the years.
As human beings we are exceptional, and Ridley argues that our exceptionality stems from our behaviour. More specifically, our desire to trade. All throughout history, humans have been trading, it is what we are best at... whether that be trading our expertise for income, or trading our home-grown vegetables for your home-grown fruits. This is something that has been synonymous throughout the years, all that's changed is that as we have got smarter, our trading patterns have become more and more efficient.
In the book, Ridley takes us on an explanatory journey from when we were hunter-gatherers to the modern man/woman of Silicon Valley and explains that humanity has built and developed innovation which leads to an advancement of our technology and will continue this trend for as long as improvement is needed. In the book, he explains his personal viewpoint on what he thinks is stifling progress and this tends to relate to government and political management. The real incremental improvements come from the bottom up when we are forced to innovate and when we are inspired to make a positive change as opposed to being forced under dictatorship and top-down rules that prevent this progress.
He doesn't completely argue that absolutely everything is great and is getting better. He highlights that people still live in poverty and will do for many more years. But regardless of the economic slump, there are incremental improvements worldwide that are taking place, and this is what's important.
But the fact of the matter is... if you are born in the Western world, or any other first world country for that matter, it is important that you realise that it is down to you to make a positive change in the world.
Here's what I think... Being born a British, White, Male in the United Kingdom, I automatically won the ovarian lottery. I fundamentally realise this, and I understand that being on earth is about pushing humanity in the right direction, and putting myself in a position so that I can make a difference in the countries full of people worse off than I. That should be on the mind of everyone fortunate enough to be born in comfort. Yet it is all too often that the pessimists are those who have everything they need in life to make a difference, everything but the desire to make a change. So it is far better to choose to be a rational optimist, rather than subconsciously choosing that the world is a dreadful place only getting worse.
I plan to do book reviews on two of Steven Pinker's books in the near future ( The better angels of our nature & Enlightenmend Now ). As they talk about similar topics but they are more recent and up to date in comparison to The Rational Optimist which was published in May 2010.
I highly recommend the book regardless,
Have a great weekend and take care!
Buy the book!
Amazon
Waterstones
Barnes & Noble
More book club friday's posts
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
Why Bob Dylan Matters, Richard F Thomas
The Art of War, Sun Tzu
Comment below!
I would love to hear what you guys think I should read next? Or if you have any opinions on anything I've written please share! I would love to connect with you :)