Matt Ridley's Top Book Recommendations
Want to know what books Matt Ridley recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Matt Ridley's favorite book recommendations of all time.
-Edward O. Wilson
This eye-opening book by the legendary author of the National Book Award-winning Whole Earth Catalog persuasively details a new approach to our stewardship of the planet. Lifelong ecologist and futurist Stewart Brand relies on scientific rigor to shatter myths concerning nuclear energy, urbanization, genetic engineering, and other controversial subjects, showing exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and... more
Recommended by Matt Ridley, and 1 others. Matt RidleyIt’s a paean for three things he thinks the environmental movement should adopt and has got wrong. One is nuclear power, the other is GM food and the third is cities. (Source)
In this provocative book, one of today's most respected thinkers turns the conversation about technology on its head by viewing technology as a natural system, an extension of biological evolution. By mapping the behavior of life, we paradoxically get a glimpse at where technology is headed-or "what it wants." Kevin Kelly offers a dozen trajectories in the coming decades for this... more
Recommended by Matt Ridley, and 1 others. Matt RidleyThe writer realises that there’s an inexorability about the way technology changes and that it’s almost as if technology has its own agenda. (Source)
Recommended by Matt Ridley, and 1 others. Matt RidleyIt’s a wonderful explanation of the technologies and how they fit into the world. (Source)
Matt RidleyMost of the environmental trends in the world are getting better not worse. There is more forest now than there was 50 years ago. (Source)
David LipseyThis is for those more interested in politics than politicians. Environmentalists hate Lomborg, who dares to questions their all-or-nothing ideology. Economists on the other hand love him, since he (unlike most environmentalists) understands that environmental decisions can involve costs as well as benefits. For example, take Lomborg’s position on global warming. It probably is happening, he... (Source)
Matt RidleyJulian Simon is really the god of this subject and a fanatic for digging up trends. (Source)
Rosamund McDougallWe need technology to help solve the problems we have, but to place faith in technology to the exclusion of other methods is crazy. (Source)
Peter AttiaOne of the books that considers to be an important read for people interested in his career path. (Source)
Matt RidleyAn astonishing literary achievement, and it was about the greatest scientific discovery of the 20th century. (Source)
Matt CalkinsIt gives you an insider’s look at how innovation happens, the struggles in it and the rivalry in the race to get to the heart of molecular structures. It felt like a business story but it’s really about science and innovation. (Source)
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Charles T. Mungerrecommends this book in the second edition of Poor Charlie’s Almanack. (Source)
Matt RidleyTurned evolutionary biology on its head and was written like a great detective story. (Source)
Phil LibinHad a profound influence on me pretty early on. (Source)
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