Why Innovation Matters (and How Not to Screw It Up), Feat. Matt Ridley

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Twenty-one different people can reasonably claim to have invented the light bulb, but Thomas Edison is the one we know about. Was it just good PR? According to Matt Ridley, it was because Edison was the progenitor of an “innovation factory” that didn’t just create things but brought them to market in a way no one else did. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Innovation is one of the most important forces in the economy, and arguably the most important driver of human prosperity over the last century. Yet, for most of its life, it has been viewed as some strange exogenous force, rather than as a discipline that could be understood. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this conversation with NLW and Ridley discuss:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why it took so long for economists to take the study of innovation seriously </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why invention is different from innovation </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why innovation has tended to concentrate in geographically proximate areas</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why free societies produce more innovation than closed societies (including empires)</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why China’s innovation production over the last decade may be an exception that proves the rule of innovation thriving in freedom</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why government winner picking is a terrible way to inspire innovation</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why innovation policy led Matt to support Brexit </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The rational, optimistic take on the future</span></li> </ul>