A note from Daniel

Rarely can we demand that which we don't know is possible. To twist the old quote, no one was clamoring for cars at the end of the nineteenth century; they were interested in faster horses. According to economist Joel Mokyr, most new technology throughout history was invented "if not randomly then in a highly unpredictable fashion." Demand was thus probably not a major factor in what people invented or improved.

Daniel The Great Mental Models, Volume 4, page 29 · December 5, 2024 Save to shelf
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