
The Rational Optimist
How Prosperity Evolves
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Narrated by:
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L. J. Ganser
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By:
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Matt Ridley
About this listen
Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before.
The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for 200 years.
Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization, which started more than 100,000 years ago, has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.
This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the 21st century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.
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Overall
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It was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics around the world. Six Easy Pieces, taken from these famous Lectures on Physics, represent the most accessible material from the series.
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Viral
- The Search for the Origin of COVID-19
- By: Matt Ridley, Alina Chan
- Narrated by: Gavin Osborn
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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A new virus descended on the human species in 2019 wreaking unprecedented havoc. Nearly two years into the pandemic, the crucial mystery of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is not only unresolved but has deepened. In this uniquely insightful book, a scientist and a writer join forces to try to get to the bottom of how a virus whose closest relations live in bats in subtropical southern China somehow managed to begin spreading among people more than 1,500 kilometers away in the city of Wuhan.
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A pivotal work in search of truth around the Covid19 virus in a world where facts got downgraded in favour of politics
- By Pal on 11-25-21
By: Matt Ridley, and others
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The E-Myth Seminar
- Taking Charge of Your Business and Your Life
- By: Michael E. Gerber
- Narrated by: Michael E. Gerber
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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Eighty percent of all businesses fail in their first five years! When you are facing down those kind of odds, you'd better know exactly what you are doing before you take the plunge. Success lies in the system! Gerber knows that for a business to be prosperous it must function like a powerful machine. The type of business is irrelevant - a precise system of dynamic interplay between the connected parts should be in place.
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Like E-myth but sick of Sarah and the pie shop?
- By A. Molnar on 08-24-19
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Take Note
- Real Life Lessons
- By: Toni Tone
- Narrated by: Toni Tone
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Do you wish you had more confidence in yourself? Are your friendships changing as you get older and you’re not sure how manage it? Is your career unfulfilling or taking over your life? These are the kinds of issues that Toni Tone explores in her audiobook. Threading in her own experiences, and in particular, what she took away from her twenties, Toni provides genuine and insightful advice on a whole array of topics.
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Totally loved this
- By Lizzy on 10-03-23
By: Toni Tone
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Enlightenment Now
- The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West but worldwide.
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We live in the best of all times
- By Neuron on 02-25-18
By: Steven Pinker
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Poor Charlie’s Almanack
- The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
- By: Charles T. Munger
- Narrated by: Grover Gardener
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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"Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up," Charles T. Munger advises in Poor Charlie’s Almanack. Originally published in 2005, this compendium of 11 talks, delivered by the legendary Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman between 1986 and 2007, has become a touchstone for a generation of investors and entrepreneurs seeking to absorb the enduring wit and wisdom of one of the great minds of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Wisdom from grandpa Charlie
- By J R Cavanaugh on 08-18-24
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He Wins, She Wins
- Learning the Art of Marital Negotiation
- By: Dr. Willard F. Harley Jr.
- Narrated by: Dr. Willard F. Harley Jr.
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In He Wins, She Wins, Dr. Harley introduces the revolutionary concept of joint agreement in marriage that keeps both husband and wife on equal footing and equally satisfied. This win-win model for negotiation starts with a simple rule: Never do anything without enthusiastic agreement between you and your spouse.
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Wonderful
- By Deysea Danu, Author on 09-19-23
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Be Not Afraid of Love
- Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection
- By: Mimi Zhu
- Narrated by: Mimi Zhu
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In their early twenties, Mimi Zhu was a survivor of intimate-partner abuse. This left them broken, in search of healing and ways to re-learn love. This work is a testament to the strength and adaptability all humans possess, a tribute to love. Be Not Afraid of Love explores the intersections of love and fear in self-esteem, friendship, family dynamics, and romantic relationships, and extends out to its effects on society and the greater political realm.
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Betrayal is the worst kind of abuse experienced in relationships but we can heal by learning to trust ourselves.
- By Anonymous User on 12-24-24
By: Mimi Zhu
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The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
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Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
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You Were Not Born to Suffer
- Overcome Fear, Insecurity and Depression and Love Yourself Back to Happiness, Confidence and Peace
- By: Blake Bauer
- Narrated by: Blake Bauer
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover why all suffering, illness, and unhappiness are cries from your soul asking you to fulfill your life's purpose, realize your greatest potential, and ultimately love, honor, and value yourself in every moment, situation, and relationship.
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Life changing
- By Empathy on 06-30-18
By: Blake Bauer
Another surprising thing about this work is that it appears to take a totally different direction to other works by the same author (I had to Wiki the name to make sure the author was the same person). I’ve previously read ‘Genome’ and ‘Nature via Nurture’ by Matt Ridley and thoroughly enjoyed the output of this popular science author, but ‘the Rational Optimist’ is utterly different (reminding me of the difference between Dawkins’ ‘Selfish Gene’ and his ‘God Delusion’ in terms of an author of nonfiction radically changing their subject matter). The ‘Rational Optimist’ posits the theory that THE key feature of humanity that has given rise to progress and prosperity is trade and exchange – more than any other thing. Not education, not culture, not government, not science, but the free market – and this going right back to our earliest hunter-gatherer origins.
He presents this argument in a very convincing (and enjoyable) way - so much so, that someone with slight socialist tendencies (like me) fears that he is being suckered into buying into capitalist propaganda! Like someone who reads ‘The Art of the Deal’ by Donald Trump and is seduced by its tub-thumping inanity.
Ridley argues that the ability of man to continue to invent and reinvent and create new ways of growing prosperity continues at such a fantastic – even exponential – rate, that we will easily manage to overcome the challenges of the future, such as climate change and increasing population. In this respect the book is very similar to ‘Abundance’ by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, also a great optimistic - highly recommended - audiobook available from Audible.
On the downside, the narration was a bit disappointing. With most audiobooks you get a bit of inappropriate word emphasis and occasional word mispronunciation (exceptions are audiobooks narrated by their authors), but in this case the incidence of these avoidable, unforced errors was unacceptably high. However, in mitigation, the narrator does have a proper ‘actor’s’ voice with the requisite gravitas to be pleasing on the ear.
Finally, I would say that this is an extremely thought-provoking and interesting book - so good that I’m just about to listen to it for a second time.
Exchange is the essence of humanity
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The most important book I've read in years.
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Excellent book, shifted my mindset with facts
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A different way of thinking about the future
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Would you listen to The Rational Optimist again? Why?
I'm already on my second listen. There is a lot of data to absorb that I want to be able to share as needed.What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
How much we just hate good news!Any additional comments?
One thing he got wrong was about farming methods. While I agree he may have a point about organic industrial not being efficient, its worth noting that that particular niche in the market was created by consumer demand. In fact, traditional mixed farms produce far more food per acre than do industrial farms.This in no way negates the central theme of the book in that things are getting better. Mixed use farming, and biodynamic growing methods are increasing because consumers desire this product and because can produce food on land that might otherwise be very difficult. Efficiency and productivity are increasing to the point where the farmers can feel free to take time off!
Almost perfect...
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History for Optimists
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Absolutely fascinating book
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The polarization of society has made this acute although this is not new. I like how the author has used history and a timeline of humanity to give us hope as a specie, this stands in contrast to another book I thoroughly enjoyed - Sapiens by Mr Hariri. I listened to this book after the sequel - “how freedom drives innovation”, and both books are great for anybody who believes in innovation and the onward match of society.
His delivery is also very good, properly accented, relevant content and direct messages.
Refreshing read
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A Refreshing and Reasonable World View
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Fact based evidence as discuss by author/narrator.
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