A timely investigation of the causes of technological and scientific stagnation, and a radical blueprint for accelerating innovation.
Read this book for the alternative history of our age.
Peter Thiel, investor and author of Zero to One
A must-read for those who seek to build the future.
Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz
From the Moon landing to the dawning of the atomic age, the decades prior to the 1970s were characterized by the routine invention of transformative technologies at breakneck speed. By comparison, ours is an age of stagnation. Median wage growth has slowed, inequality and income concentration are on the rise, and scientific research has become increasingly expensive and incremental.
Why are we unable to replicate the rate of progress of past decades? What can we do to reinvigorate innovation?
In Boom, Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber take an inductive approach to the problem. In a series of case studies tracking some of the most significant breakthroughs of the past 100 yearsfrom the Manhattan Project and the Apollo program to fracking and Bitcointhey reverse-engineer how transformative progress arises from small groups with a unified vision, vast funding, and surprisingly poor accountability. They conclude that financial bubbles, while often maligned as destructive and destabilizing forces, have in fact been the engine of past breakthroughs and will drive future advances. In other words: Bubbles arent all bad.
Integrating insights from economics, philosophy, and history, Boom identifies the root causes of the Great Stagnation and provides a blueprint for accelerating innovation. By decreasing collective risk aversion, overfunding experimental processes, and organizing high-agency individuals around a transcendent mission, bubbles are the key to realizing a future that is radically different from the present. Boom offers a definite and optimistic vision of our futureand a path to unleash a new era of global prosperity.
Recenzijos
The dot-com bubble looked like the peak of delusion, but the truly deluded were those who wanted to indefinitely defer the future. Everyone knows bubbles can disguise madness as wisdom; read this book for the alternative history of our age.Peter Thiel, investor and author of Zero to One
Boom makes the case that humanity's greatest risk is not climate change or misaligned superintelligent Al but not making enough progress. A must-read for those who seek to build the future.Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz
"When is it that temporary bubbles can help drive forward progress? This happened with the railroads, with the internet, and it is likely to happen with AI. Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber have produced some essential reading on a very important and also understudied topic."Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation and professor of economics at George Mason University
Daugiau informacijos
First print run of 20,000
PR campaign managed by Fortier PR targeting coverage in top business and tech media and podcasts including The Economist, The Financial Times, The New Yorker, London Review of Books, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Ezra Klein Show, and EconTalk
Print and digital galley mailing to trade review publications, mainstream media, influential VCs and startup executives, and public intellectuals, tastemakers, and policymakers, including Peter Thiel, Marc Andreesen, Matt Levine, and Erik Torenberg
Paid and organic promotion on Stripe Press social media and newsletter channels
Creation of promotional materials for pre-publication distribution in print and online, including a print and digital zine, microsite, social media assets, and book trailer
Author events and interviews at tech and economics-focused conferences, clubs, and summits
Introduction: Doom and Boom
Part I: Stagnation
Chapter 1: The Ideology of Stasis
Chapter 2: From Bust to Boom: Bubbles as Innovation Accelerators
Part II: Acceleration
Chapter 3: The Manhattan Project
Chapter 4: The Apollo Program
Chapter 5: Moores law
Chapter 6: The Golden Age of Corporate R&D
Chapter 7: Fracking
Chapter 8: Bitcoin
Part III: Escape
Chapter 9: Unleashing Prometheus? Technology as Salvation
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Bibliography
Index
Byrne Hobart is an investor, consultant, and writer. He is the author of The Diff, a daily newsletter covering inflection points in finance and technology. He is also a partner at Anomaly, a frontier tech investment firm.
Tobias Huber is a writer and investor. He is a partner at Anomaly, a frontier tech investment firm. He has a background in philosophy and holds a doctor of science degree from ETH Zurich.
