If innovation can be bottled into a formula, it wouldn’t be that unique or valuable. Irrespective of the title, I was interested in getting more perspectives of it, especially from Matt Ridley whose Rational Optimist I enjoyed a while ago (review here).

The book is structured somewhat differently from other books. The author spends a lot of time on specific innovation in different areas for two thirds of the book. The rest of the time is in summarizing the theorizes. The case for the second part of the title, is never fully made, but I was not that keen on that aspect anyway. The stories are interesting and the summaries are okay, but I was left expecting more. I wish the book had been clearer about who it was intended for. That might have helped direct it better.

This book had a lot of good, interesting points. I think Ridley glosses over a number of things, and it's interesting that his thesis is "and why it flourishes in freedom", yet he claims at the end that China has a huge advantage because it is less regulated in so many ways. Meanwhile, their controls on information and free communication (The Great Firewall) probably get in the way at LEAST as much as lack of regulations help them. On the other hand, Ridley believes that patents and copyrights inhibit innovation more than they encourage them, and China is known for not honoring patents and copyrights from outsiders, so maybe that's a factor too. What I disagree with Matt about: Some regulations truly are needed to establish rules of the road, and people do need to have trust that their community and corporations will be protected from theft. It's a tricky balance, I think. Anyway, I do recommend this book, it's amazing how many parallel innovators there have been for so many great innovations!

Fascinating

Depends what you're into! When I was a kid, Matt's books "The Red Queen" and "Nature vs Nurture" shaped me, so it felt great coming back into his universe. At times it is dry as he's just rattling off history, but it is done with his beautifully unique style and perspective. Certainly gave me a new appreciation for innovation.

Un libro ambizioso, perché cerca di spiegare come funziona l’innovazione. Un tema senza dubbio interessante e molto attuale, ma con l'altissimo rischio di finire nella retorica. [a:Matt Ridley|3151|Matt Ridley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1228985862p2/3151.jpg] lo fa proponendo un taglio relativamente originale, dedicando la prima parte del libro al racconto di alcune innovazioni che fanno parte della storia degli esseri umani: dalla preistoria fino a i giorni nostri, attraversando settori diversi (alimentazione, salute, trasporti, tecnologia, ecc…). La seconda parte è dedicata invece agli insegnamenti che possiamo trarre da tutte le storie di innovazione narrate precedentemente, di fatto dando risposta al quesito del titolo. Non è stato per me un libro semplicissimo: avendolo letto in inglese la prima parte non è stata di facile scorrimento, visto che è piena di termini tecnici (vi potete immaginare quanto possa essere esperto di meccanismi relativi al motore a scoppio o robe simili). Ma il viaggio vale il prezzo del biglietto, sempre se vi interessano queste tematiche.

أعظم القتلة في العالم الحديث لم تعد الجراثيم ، بل إنها العادات : التدخين على سبيل المثال. إنه يقتل مباشرة أكثر من ستة ملايين شخص كل عام قبل الأوان ، وربما يساهم بشكل غير مباشر في مليون حالة وفاة أخرى. إن ابتكار التدخين ، الذي تم جلبه من الأمريكتين إلى العالم القديم في القرن السادس عشر ، هو أحد أكبر أخطاء البشرية. بالنظر إلى أن هذه عادة طوعية ، وأن البشر عقلانيون على الأقل لبعض الوقت ، كان من المفروض أن يكون من السهل نسبيًا إبادة هذا القاتل. فقط أخبر الناس أن ذلك سيء لهم وسيتوقفون. لكن الإدمان بقي على حاله ، وقد ثبت أن التعامل معه أصعب من ذلك. التدخين هو مصدر الوفيات المبكرة أكثر من أي سبب آخر. مع العلم أنه يسبب السرطان وأمراض القلب ، فإن أثر النيكوتين المدهش ساهم في شعبيتها العالمية.
حظر الإعلانات ، والتغليف البسيط ، وحظر التدخين في الأماكن العامة ، والرسائل الرادعة على علب السجائر ، والاستشارات الطبية ، والتعليم - كلها كان لها بعض التأثير ، خاصة في الدول الغربية. ولكن لا يزال أكثر من مليار شخص في العالم مدمنين على إشعال نار صغيرة من المواد النباتية بين شفاههم.

Matt Ridley
How Innovation Works
Translated By:#Maher_Razouk

Great collection of innovation case studies. Lots of great examples with the underlying theme that innovation is iterative and collaborative.

Some interesting stories I wasn't familiar with, but mostly preaching to the choir. Read The Red Queen instead.