Ridley Me This

How does technological innovation actually happen? We were able to speak to Matt Ridley, who ...

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How does technological innovation actually happen? We were able to speak to Matt Ridley, who has literally written the (upcoming) book on this subject, How Innovation Works. Matt brings up fascinating points, such as whether or not innovation really relies on “great men” miraculously coming up with brilliant ideas, why we are often resistant to new technology, and how we can get out of our current innovation slump, a product of our cultural risk-aversion. And tune in to see where he places on the ranking of Most British People Ever (™).


Show Notes:

–GLoP Live 2: God save us all

Members of The Dispatch are invited to join the GLoP live broadcast on

Sunday, April 26th at 6PM ET/5PM CT/3PM PT

–How Innovation Works – preorder now

–I, Pencil, yet again

–Kelly’s What Technology Wants

–Harris’ novel, The Second Sleep

–Matt’s bat facts

–Remnant with Vin Cannato

–ExpressVPN.com/REMNANT for 3 free months


See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Comments (12)
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  1. Montana Morris

    Hey Jonah,

    I know this is late in the game, but wanted to circle back and get your thoughts from a philosophical perspective on the differences between technical innovation, and the open, restless attitude that undergirds it, which is lauded (appropriately, in my view) in this episode, and social innovation, on which conservatives tend to take a much more cautious approach. I'm curious if you have thought about the basis for your seeming difference of attitudes in terms of how you approach each topic?

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    Michelle O

    A very interesting comment from Ridley about people being criticized (must I spell it criticised since it's happening in the UK?) for not clapping the NHS on Thursday nights. That is some major cult-like behavior there.

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    Kevin Johnson

    A really good one, Jonah. If you have the chance to get Joe Rogan on, or go on his program, I bet it would be a hoot. Culture and asininity surrounding us would make your minds meld, I think. He is ALWAYS crying out for objective journalism, and his plug for The Dispatch would help a lot, I’d wager. He and Ben Shapiro are friends.

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    C C Writer

    Attn Jonah: I haven't even had a chance to listen yet, but "Britishness" renders on-topic something I've been meaning to mention so I thought I'd better hurry up and mention it.

    I really enjoyed the British Accent Competition of a few months ago, but thought it accidentally got onto a different track than intended. Giving the contenstants something dramatic to read turned it into a "Best Dramatic Reading with a British Accent" contest. That was fun, but I always felt the original notion was that to American ears, Cooke's accent, for instance, is capable of elevating the most ordinary words to a different level. (Whenever I hear him I picture Hugh Grant, but your mileage may vary.) Therefore, to properly test this proposition and its execution by various speakers and varieties of Anglosphere accent, they should be given something extremely prosaic and ordinary to read. For instance: a grocery list, an excerpt from terms and conditions, instructions to assemble something, a weather forecast, or a traffic report. Or anything else along those lines. I hope we get to hear British Accent contest Part II one of these days.

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      C C Writer

      contenstants should be contestants

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    Karen Grubaugh

    Brilliant guest! Also wanted to say I am listening to podcasts more [although I have never missed a Remnant] because the guests are a step above the norm before the shutdown. I put in my air pod ears, turn off ambient sound and zone into my podcasts as I do my daily chores. Sometimes I sit down, listen again and take notes. I listen to every Dispatch fielded podcast, Econtalk, GLOP, Editors, Commentary, Mad Dogs & Englishmen and Dan Crenshaw’s “Hold These Truths” without fail plus an assortment of others. There is nothing on television to compare.

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    CynthiaW

    Fun show, 4-1/2 miles on the treadmill. I liked Ridley's accent a lot!

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  7. ROBERT

    So many many great podcasts, so little time! I've got to find a new route to my office- to add an extra 15 minutes just to finish these things!
    Fascinating discussion and guest - on so many levels. I could write for an hour on this one.
    But could I ask a favor? Several great books were mentioned in this podcast. But I could not write them down since I was driving.
    Can someone respond with a list of all books mentioned?

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  8. Jordan Henderson

    Great episode.

    I'm reminded of a discussion I had a few years back with a Scientist. His position was that the great innovators in Science primarily benefitted from the Zeitgeist, that the discoveries were the result of everything going on at the time and would have come about soon anyway. I tended to agree, but offered this additional perspective. The truly great innovators of Science benefitted from having a status from coming making multiple discoveries in different areas. Einstein and Newton both had their own "Annus mirabilis" where they made discoveries in different, perhaps overlapping areas that gave those in Science to take all of their discoveries more seriously.

    It occurs to me that Edison had numerous innovations in Telegraphy and other areas before he tackled the Light Bulb.

    One, perhaps overlooked or perhaps I haven't read enough, reason that Innovation may seem to be stalled, as Ross Douthat argues in his book The Decadent Society (I've not read it but I did get the cliff notes version on The Remnant), might be overspecialization in Science and Technology. Today, it's just not possible for people to innovate in many areas and thus, they can only be taken seriously among those in their own narrow field. Their ideas don't escape the lab or their paper.

    Perhaps Ridley's pointed out this problem with overspecialization as being an impediment to innovation.

    One connection I find interesting that I'm reminded of from the above. Max Planck was studying the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted from various materials when heated. This was known as the black-body problem. The commercial justification for this research was to make a better lightbulb. His result led to Planck's constant, which was the first result that led to Quantum Mechanics. Einstein further developed this with his work on the Photo-Electric effect (for which he was granted the Nobel Prize, Relativity was too weird for a long time to get the Prize). Improving the lightbulb was directly in line with much of modern physics.

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  9. TonyH

    How do I register for the GLoP live stream? thedispatch.com/dingo takes me to the episode page.

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      Chris Jenkins

      There's a link to the Zoom meeting in Jonah's Wednesday epistle. I bet there's also one in the G-file today.

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    Bradley Alpert

    Perhaps if "open source hardware" catches on, innovation outside of software will pick up to reverse the slowness thesis of both Peter Thiel and Matt Ridley.

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