Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper Book Summary - Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper Book explained in key points
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Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper summary

Robert Bryce

How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong

2.1 (44 ratings)
14 mins

What is Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper about?

Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper (2014) explains the psychology behind our anxiety and pessimism regarding climate change. Rather than giving up and reverting to a medieval way of life, these blinks explain how innovation and new technologies will help humankind survive and continue moving forward.

Table of Contents

    Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper
    summarized in 6 key ideas

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    Key idea 1 of 6

    Global problems give us collapse anxiety, but innovation can help us find the right solutions.

    At present, humanity is facing many complex problems, such as climate change, terrorism, bloody civil conflicts and the threat of nuclear war. But is it too late to combat these problems and move forward? This is one of the predominant questions of our age. While many people seem ready to give up and roll over, this is not the way forward if we want to combat these problems effectively.

    These days, we are being constantly bombarded with bad news from around the world. Often, this news is either about environmental disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, or political crises, such as war and terrorism. Either way, our worldview is continuously shaped by unpleasant information.

    The bombardment of bad news we all face causes many people to suffer from collapse anxiety. Basically, collapse anxiety is a fear that the world as we know is on the brink of destruction, and that there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

    It can be tempting to give up and resign ourselves to the idea that the world is going to, well, collapse. But this stops us from fighting to improve our lives and those of the people around us.

    Technological innovations have been a constant source of dramatic improvements in the everyday lives of people around the globe. Thanks to these innovations, people live longer and healthier lives than ever before. Advances in medicinal science have enabled us to overcome formerly life-threatening diseases such as smallpox and polio.

    Innovation has also given rise to the internet, a tool that gives us access to countless websites, many of which are packed with useful information. The internet allows millions of people to pursue life-enriching education that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

    Clearly, innovation has been the source of many great achievements that have improved the lives of human beings everywhere. Next, we’ll explore some of the innovations that humans have come up with in the last millennia, and how such innovations could save us and our future.

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    Best quote from Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper

    Global grain yields experienced an average increase of 1.9 percent per year in the years between 1950 and 2010.

    —Robert Bryce
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    About the Author

    Robert Bryce is an American author and journalist. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post on the energy industry and climate change. Bryce is also the author of Power Hungry and Gusher of Lies.

    Who should read Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper?

    • People curious about the role innovation plays in our future
    • Readers interested in alternative approaches to the issue of climate change
    • Anyone determined not to surrender to the problems we face today

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