5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely essential read

C. · 20 April 2011

Like The God Delusion, this will hopefully come to be thought of as one of the key books of its time.For me, it articulated every thought I'd ever had about consumer capitalism. What a delight to read someone as intelligent as Matt Ridley eloquently voice my thoughts about the free market, how it has helped bring prosperity, learning, democracy, freedom and charity wherever it has been applied. The book certainly proves that the current intellectual force is with what could loosely be termed the right, if only in the sense that socialism gets another huge battering here.As the title suggests, Ridley is a rationalist. He's also a humanist and a capitalist which, as he convincingly demonstrates time after time, is anything but a dirty word. It's the opposite: it's the way to health and happiness, the way to the stars. Where financial enrichment appears, so do cultural and scientific enrichment. He exposes those who would wish to stop the economy dead as dunderheads, showing how it is only an advanced, innovative, risk-taking economy that can provide the best solutions to problems that life and the planet can throw at us. Entrepreneurs are the answer, not the clumsy hand of the state.My only slight criticism would be that there's a few too many historical examples from history of specialisation and exchange working their magic - with a few less we'd still get the point.But this is still a brilliant book, and note that those who give it low marks are those who do not comment on the book itself but only choose to abuse the author. Ignore these skulking socialists and buy this book to make this planet's future a whole lot better.

5.0 out of 5 stars Disruptive, subversive and brilliant

M.R. · 4 April 2011

The Rational Optimist is one of the bravest books I have read. As Ridley himself points out optimists are regarded as fools whist pessimists are seen as earnest sages. For Ridey, himself an academic of some standing, to risk the opprobrium and scorn of his colleagues (and many others besides) is a valiant and selfless act of one who, of course, knows he's right.This book is very uncomfortable reading, not only for people such as myself who would regard themselves on the liberal left, but for the far right, the middle and every bit either side. Quite simply it preaches the unfashionable, and often the publishingly disastrous, notion that we're not all going to hell in a hand cart. Quite the reverse actually. For anyone who wishes to stand Canute like in the face of progress this book is a deep embarrassment and I suspect, destined for their own Bonfire of the vanities.What Ridley does is point out the blindingly, bleeding obvious that the world is a better place to be for the vast majority of its ever increasing population as every decade passes. Crucially this are not the insane musings of some kind of Darwinist evangalist; this book contains page after page of well researched empirical evidence to support his observations - you just cannot argue with the science.Human progress, Ridley argues, is a certainty but for one thing - restrictions to human trade in both commerce and ideas imposed by the benighted self-interest of the few - the anti-genetic engineering lobby who are happy to leave millions starving or suffering from curable diseases for no good scientific reason, the anti-globalists who cannot see that the local prosperity provided by factory jobs is the most potent antidote to poverty yet invented, the environmentalists who believe that turning millions of acres of farm land over to the production of biofuels is the answer to our energy challenges. The list goes on. This is indeed uncomfortable reading as it's so much common sense and flies in the face of our insatiable appetite for bad news. Recently David Cameron was met with howls of derision for suggesting that politics might be about making people's lives happier - good gracious surely every politician knows that a people in fear are a people in thrawl, so let's just drop this absurd idea shall we David and rule on. Happily for readers of this book good news may not sell papers or help our rulers to rule but it's unquestionably and irrefutably out there. Read this and go seek.

4.0 out of 5 stars A rare and refreshing point of view!

A. · 28 December 2012

Ridley argues with a volume of credible justification and evidence, that it is man's unique ability/tendency to connect, in order to exchange and barter goods, knowledge and know-how, that has led to advances in the economy and a gradual improvement in the welfare and relative wealth of the species over the last 100,000+ years.The author points out that there is no equilibrium in nature, only constant dynamism. The earth has been warming and cooling for millennia, tyrannical and benign leaders come and go, fads and fashions come and go, creativity, trade, specialisation and wealth blossom, only to be preyed on and supressed by the elite, chiefs and priests forcing a reversion to self sufficiency, but over time, things have got better and will continue to improve as long as we continue to share and build on knowledge. Ridley suggests that our perception that relatively recent periods of depravity and savagery in the history of man, point to an overall regression, is rather due to an awakening of awareness, standards and morals, and educational advances that have allowed for improvements in communication and literacy. Not because these conditions had not existed before. "Our view of the past can be rosy because we know so little about the hardships of our ancestors".Ridley concludes that it is bottom up exchange, not money, government intervention or policy that is the "flywheel of the perpetual innovation machine that drives the modern world" and this "ever increasing exchange of ideas causes an ever increasing rate of innovation".Ridley does not avoid the `two great pessimism of the day': Africa & Climate Change, nor does he decry `community', `green values' or `local', in fact, quite the opposite. It is Ridley's awareness of the importance of these values to many, along with the challenges of on-going war, poverty, starvation and unjust societies, that have led him to question some western values and their wholesale, global application, which at times, although well meaning, arguably cause more harm to man and planet, than good.Ridley's opinions are bold, and brave. His optimism is rare and as such, refreshing. The only problem I have with this optimistic viewpoint and Ridley's `you see it didn't happen in the end' bias, is that I do believe a number of potential disasters have been averted and `didn't happen in the end' because of timely action taken by socially conscious governments and/or individuals.That said, this book is definitely worth reading, certainly to bring some balance and context to the pessimism of today and to focus attention on the value and role of innovation.

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading

D. · 19 July 2025

Great book that everyone should read

Dare to be an optimist (with good reason)

B.I. · 5 July 2010

This is a little embarrassing, but right now, right in front of you, millions of ideas are having sex. They might be having it right inside this Bolo review page. I know, freaky, right? According to author Matt Ridley, the secret of humans' success is exchange, and while trade in physical objects is a big part of that, the exchange of ideas is really the thing that has kept this whole civilization thing moving forward for the last 10,000 years or so, and especially in the last 200 years. And when it comes to ideas having sex, the Internet is the ultimate "swingers' club."Ridley's book "The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves" is quite a bit more serious than that first paragraph makes it sound, but it does describe a key point. He says, "Without trade, innovation just does not happen. Exchange is to technology as sex is to evolution. It stimulates novelty." Another key thing that exchange and trade allow is specialization. Self-sufficiency sounds good in theory (and in practice if you are in a basic survival situation), but when it comes to growth, prosperity, and happiness (all closely linked), specialization means more of everything for everybody. If multiple people in a community have different skills and products, and if exchange is allowed, everyone has the potential to benefit from the knowledge and output of everyone else. Ideas are especially valuable in part because sharing an idea is like lighting a candle for someone else - now you both have a lighted candle (or an idea of how to do something better). When knowledge is shared in a community, it becomes something like a "collective brain." And when the community expands to include the entire world, interconnected by vast transportation networks and with the Internet as its central nervous system, you can have the wild orgy of exchange of ideas, goods, and services that we call the modern world.Ridley spends most of the book in a chronological journey through the development of civilization, from the first inklings of exchange and specialization some 200,000 years ago (when we really diverged from other species including our close cousins the apes), through expanded barter systems, to the development of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Of course climate stability had a lot to do with that as well, but an interesting point is that trade is what really made agriculture interesting and worthwhile. There was also the development of energy sources, from human power (including slavery, unfortunately), to animal power, to various forms of "current solar" energy (water power, wind power, burning wood, etc.), to various forms of "stored solar" (coal, oil, natural gas). There are more steps, but it's clear that the modern world is based to a great extent on exchange and specialization, including free trade and the free exchange of ideas. These have in turn produced a wide range of innovations in social systems and technology and led to the astounding prosperity that most (but of course not all) people in the world enjoy today. Ridley points out that while Louis XIV used some 498 servants to prepare his meals, a modern person of average means has many more people working for him or her (mostly indirectly and on a shared basis) to make easily available food, clothing, medicines, transportation, entertainment, and everything else that we take for granted in modern life. In this sense the average person today is richer than a king in the seventeenth century.But if things are so great and getting better all the time, why are so many people so pessimistic about the present and the future? Ridley doesn't have a good explanation for this, though he knows he's fighting from a minority position (optimists must be naive!), and he shows that it has always been so. People were fretting over "peak coal" in 1830, and convinced that things had improved so much in the previous half century that there could be no place to go but down. But of course the rest of the nineteenth century was in fact a golden age of technological and social development. Things like slavery and child labor declined not so much because people became nicer, but because energy sources and manufacturing methods made them less necessary (or you could say affordable).The Rational Optimist is not really an ideological work. While there is a strong sense that Ridley believes that markets generally work better than governments (especially corrupt governments like many in Africa), he's not saying that governments are not necessary. He's certainly a strong proponent for free trade and individual rights, which are strongly correlated with a sense of well-being or "happiness." He also believes that things will continue to get better, even for Africa, as long as we keep moving forward in terms of trade and openness. Although anything can happen including terrorism, crazy governments, natural disasters, etc., his optimism is based on considerations of history and of how things really work, not on wishful thinking or on some belief that prosperity is humanity's right or destiny. It's more or less what we do.I personally tend toward optimism myself, and this book has given me a lot to think about including many reasons for optimism that I hadn't thought about before. I highly recommend this book.

worthwhile

D. · 1 June 2024

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.

Ótimo livro!

M.R.d.S. · 5 January 2015

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 antes de lo estimado

E.B.O. · 15 November 2022

llego bien

Lectura obligatoria para entender el mundo en que vivimos.

e. · 4 December 2023

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