Matt Ridley

Everything around us has evolved from a bottom-up manner. But we tell stories that it came in a top-down, one-man-redefined-the-field way. We fail to appreciate randomness, environment and various other factors that led to a change. Matt Ridley call this as an argument of creationists, whereas the world has really evolved. The entire book is a convincing argument on various facets of our life and how it has evolved.

I now really appreciate the concepts of emergence and complexity much better thru this fantastic, well researched and lucidly written book.

It’s an excellent book that deserves five stars. But it is deliciously repetitive. To get the best out of it, I recommend you to read one chapter with enough breaks. You will love it.… (mer)

With those four men listed as the authors, how could this have been such an uninteresting book? It’s the transcript of a debate which took place in Toronto several years ago. Pinker and Ridley made the optimistic case, de Botton and Gladwell responded as pessimists. Pinker was the strongest, laying out a powerful case for steady improvement in the human condition, though he seemed (more than) a bit smug about climate change, among other challenges. Reading what he said now that we’ve had COVID and the invasion of Ukraine, I still think he’s essentially right. But to understand the argument better, one should read their books, not this one, which may have worked well as a debate on stage, but not as a text to read. Disappointed.… (mer)