Can One Be a Rational Optimist About the World? with Matt Ridley

Why do we generally feel like the world is getting worse, when by almost all measures it’s getting better? How do ideas “have sex”, and why does that matter for innovation? Why do brains tend to systematically misread the future? What if optimism is a more rational stance than pessimism? If innovation isn’t primarily about lone geniuses, what’s it really about? Join Eagleman with scientist and author Matt Ridley to explore what it means to be, in Ridley’s phrasing, a “rational optimist”.

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More Information:

Matt Ridley. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves.

Matt Ridley. The Evolution of Everything.

Matt Ridley. How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom.

Substack: Rational Optimist Society.

Matt Ridley’s TED talk: “When Ideas Have Sex”

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