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The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010)

by Matt Ridley(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

006145205X (ISBN13: 9780061452055)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Harper

review 1: This is a monumental book that has greatly influenced my worldview. A brilliant combination of evolutionary theory, economics, and critical analysis of science and technology, the book makes a very convincing case about the future prosperity of the world, the triumph of free trade, and the magic of ideas, which have increasing returns. Drawing from almost every economic and evolutionary concept I've ever learned about, Ridley has done his homework, and then some. My favorite part about the book was how he showed how pessimism, especially given our media culture, has given humanity a grim and false view of the future for centuries. I cannot recommend this book enough; it will help you understand everything in a far clearer light and may save you a lot of heartache that you ... morewaste worrying about things that are only "problems" because someone has ignored the facts and portrayed things in a far grimmer light than they truly are.
review 2: As an optimist I really enjoyed reading the book just because of it's main idea given out in the title. There was quite a lot of information, examples, dates and other interesting facts, that I found fascinating. On the other hand, all those dates, percentages made it a bit harder and more dull to read thoroughly. In the end, I would recommend this book to most of the people. Especially funny is that people tend to be pessimistic about major concerns on their time (i.e. global warming), but the problems that made a lot of impact and fuss in the past are taken lightly. Just to agree with the book author - information exchange is happening so massively that humans are able to find solutions relatively quickly. So I wouldn't be that much amazed when the problem of climate change will be solved and then pessimists will move on other problems to complain about. less

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