Without fossil fuel, modern men would need 600 unpaid slaves to afford the same lifestyle.Its insight can be just as valuable today, even though Riddle left out some threats like a global pandemic ( as Bill Gates pointed out).īy Matt Ridley Get the book Surprising Facts The book was published in 2010, shortly after the financial crisis. Ridley worked as the science editor for the Economist for nine years and published several books about innovation, evolution, and human nature as an independent writer. The Rational Optimist was written by accomplished science writer, Matt Ridley. This book is about the unsung incredible achievements and why we can be optimistic because of them. We are drawn to bad news, while we take incredible achievements for granted. I picked up The Rational Optimist to get to know more about the bright side of history and worldwide trends. What if there is a different side of the climate change debate, which is less worrisome?.What if innovation always pushed humans forward?.But what if we live in the most prosperous time humans ever experienced?.Inflation is record high, energy and food prices are steadily rising, there are layoffs all over the world, and ChatGPT will take our jobs. In 2022 (when I write this) there are not a lot of voices that are signaling to us that we should be overly optimistic about the future. Project a ridiculously high return on investment for your next campaign to get your marketing budget accepted.Īn even better reason to be an optimist, is that being grumpy all the time sucks.Publish optimistic inflation and job market predictions to cool down the economy (if you are the government agency).Save like a pessimist, and invest like an optimist when it comes to personal finance.But for some mysterious reason, every book and every fact points to the direction that it makes much more sense to be an optimist. Reading extensively is part of my overthinking process. I am an overthinker and a pessimist by nature.

The rational optimist