Boom - Bubbles and the End of Stagnation

"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 years--from the Manhattan Project and the Apollo program to fracking and Bitcoin--they 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 aren't 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."--

List of contents

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: Moore’s 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

About the author

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.

Summary

A timely investigation of the causes of technological and scientific stagnation, and a radical blueprint for accelerating innovation.

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 years—from the Manhattan Project and the Apollo program to fracking and Bitcoin—they 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 aren’t 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 future—and a path to unleash a new era of global prosperity.

Foreword

• 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

Product details

• Authors: Byrne Hobart, Tobias Huber
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 29.10.2024
• EAN: 9781953953476
• ISBN: 978-1-953953-47-6
• No. of pages: 308
• Dimensions: 235 mm x 158 mm x 28 mm
• Weight: 654 g
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Economics; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Entrepreneurship, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, PHILOSOPHY / Criticism, Impact of science & technology on society, History of engineering & technology, Entrepreneurship / Start-ups