Bookworm: How Innovation Works

Innovation flourishes in freedom and nothing happens in isolation, argues Matt Ridley.

What’s this book about?

Its author, Matt Ridley (a science writer who was also the chairman of the bank Northern Rock 2004-2007), argues that innovation doesn’t happen in an instant; it’s a lengthy and complicated process for which multiple people – not one single individual – tend to deserve credit. It’s difficult, he says, involves risks and relies on the exchange of skills between multiple people.

Can he give examples of joint innovations?

He has plenty. The steam engine, for example, wasn’t the straightforward invention of one person. Harnessing steam to make work in the 18th century more efficient, it was the result of work by Denis Papin, Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen. All three men stood on the shoulders of giants, relying on advances by other people in order to help realise the potential of the technology. Nothing, says Ridley, happens in isolation.

But inventors still have to take risks of their own, don't they?

Yes, especially in medicine, where the stakes are high. Innovation is always a process of trying out potentially dangerous things in the hope that they will work. There is no obvious route to the solution, otherwise the solution wouldn’t have remained elusive for so long.

Smallpox is one example in Ridley’s book. Back in the 18th century, the following would have seemed extremely dangerous, and yet it proved to be an effective method of immunising against smallpox: a person would take the pus from an infected smallpox patient and rub it into a new open wound of their own. Without what seemed like huge risk, this particular innovation – engraftment – would never have developed.

Changes happened gradually in the transport sector as well, even though the risks were lower than in medicine. Throughout the 19th century, what we now know as the car went through a number of refinements, always small.

Which other areas have seen spiralling innovation?

Communication. In the 19th century, there was a rapid proliferation of new ways to communicate. Where before it would have taken days to send a message thousands of miles, by the 20th century, it was commonplace for it to take place in seconds.

Because almost nothing is more important than the world’s ability to communicate, innovation in this area has been rife, harnessing novel technology to get results.

How does innovation happen in the first place?

It’s often a result of serendipity: a chance discovery that leads to an observation then the testing of that observation.

In 1938, polytetrafluoroethylene – a crucial compound for making things such as non-stick pans and lubricants – was discovered by a scientist who was working on refrigerants. He discovered that polytetrafluoroethylene was able to resist high temperatures, and other scientists built on these observations to discover just how many uses the material had.

I bet he was popular!

Perhaps, but actually, Ridley’s message is that innovation almost always faces resistance. It’s a disruption to the status quo that most people like to live under. Radios were initially opposed by musicians, for example.

Products don’t have to be obviously damaging for people to want to stifle them. It’s often the mark of a significant, life-altering innovation that it will strike fear into the heart of the population. It’s why generative AI is causing such waves.

Where’s the most innovation happening at the moment?

Ridley thinks you’d be hard pushed to say that it was in the West. He believes that China is demonstrating high levels of innovation and that the West looks less keen on generating bold new ideas and keener on holding on to existing profits. We need to take big risks, he says, and cherish the free exchange of information.

What am I most likely to say after reading this book?

“My innovations are all my own!”

What am I least likely to say after reading this book?

 “I see no need to take any risks.”