#95: Inside Humanity’s Infinite Improbability Drive — Matt Ridley

Matt Ridley is an author, journalist, biologist, and businessman. His books have sold over a million copies.

Show notes

Selected links

• Follow Matt Ridley: Website | Twitter
• How Innovation Works, by Matt Ridley
• The Origins of Virtue, by Matt Ridley
• Zero to One, by Peter Thiel
• Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin
• The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
• ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society’, essay by Friedrich Hayek
• Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou
• The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen
• The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert Gordon

Topics discussed

• When did Matt first come to understand the disturbing notion of selfish gene theory? 8:55
• How did Matt, a biologist, become so interested in innovation? 16:20
• The infinite improbability drive. 20:30
• What’s the difference between innovation and invention? 24:05
• What do most people (wrongly) believe about how innovation works? 25:48
• Why innovation relies on collaboration. 33:53
• Innovation is the child of freedom. But what amount or types of freedom are sufficient to underpin innovation? 40:35
• Why does innovation thrive in fragmented political systems? 46:39
• Does unfettered economic freedom tend irresistibly towards monopolies? 50:37
• Antitrust enforcement: have we been doing enough? 1:02:44
• The relationship between uncertainty and innovation. 1:05:58
• Frauds and visionaries. 1:14:20
• Uncertainty and economics. 1:15:26
• Are we in the midst of a Great Stagnation? 1:26:40
• Can we escape stagnation? 1:40:30