"How Innovation Works" by Matt Ridley (2020)

"In China, too, the periods of explosive innovation coincided with decentralized government, otherwise known as 'warring states'.  The strong empires, most notable the Ming, effectively put a stop to innovation as well as trade and enterprise more generally.  David Hume, writing in the eighteenth century, already realized this truth, that China had stalled as source of novelty because it was unified, while Europe took off because it was divided.

"America may appear an exception, but in fact it proves this rule.  Its federal structure has always allowed experiment.  Far from being a monolithic imperium, the states were for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a laboratory of different rules, taxes, policies and habits, with entrepreneurs moving freely to whichever state most suited their project.  Recently the federal government has grown stronger, and at the same time many Americans are wondering why the country is not as fleet of foot at innovation as it once was."

Matt Ridley is a journalist, businessman and (somewhat apologetic) Libertarian.  He's written for both The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, He's held various posts in private and public institutions within the United Kingdom, he was a staunch Brexit advocate, and has expressed some opposition to climate science.  His best known book is probably 2010's The Rational Optimist.

In How Innovation Works Ridley describes various innovations throughout human history, explaining (or at least attempting to explain) how these innovations were less the product of individual genius than the result of ideas and technologies accumulating to the point where they would have surfaced regardless of the individuals involved.

So far so good I suppose, but I notice he carefully avoids certain disciplines.  Painting, for instance, or fiction.  And saying something like "Someone would have thought up the Theory of Relativity whether or not Einstein was born," requires a lot of explanation, and this author carefully avoids such discussions.  Surely the individual counts for something, though in many cases (such as the invention of the light bulb), the role of the individual inventor has been overstated.

After his tour of human innovation the author tries to distill his preceding chapters into a "theory of innovation," or at least highlight characteristics of cultures that are innovative as opposed to cultures that aren't.  This, for me, was where the wheels came off the bus, primarily because for almost every example given I could think of a counter-example.  Generalizing over the "innovativeness" of societies is also a little too easy to do.  Can we state, categorically, that any society is more innovative than any other?  And if we could, wouldn't that lead to a kind of cultural chauvinism?

Whatever the case, I don't think Matt Ridley's arguments are that convincing.  A lot of it only sounds like common sense until you think it over.  There are certainly places where innovation is more welcome than in others, but I don't think the author has really defined what those places are and what makes them conducive to innovation.

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Some Other Movies From 2023

What you see below is what I've seen so far.  Once this year is in the rearview mirror I'll go back and watch some of the movies I haven't seen.

The Best Movie of the Year?  Or Just the Weirdest?

1. Beau is Afraid

Let's get surreal with Ari Aster and Joaquin Phoenix.  I could attempt to explain the plot but why bother?  If you've seen it you'll know, if you haven't there are only so many words in this or any other language.

Excellent 

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. I thought the first one was just OK, the second one was forgettable, but in the third one director James Gunn really brings all the threads together. Rocket Raccoon's backstory takes center stage, and overall this movie is both more heartfelt and less jokey than its predecessors.

Sign me up for Superman: Legacy. I'm more than ready.

 

2. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One

Probably the best written entry in the series, and the train sequence at the end is very memorable. Hayley Atwell does most of the heavy lifting in this movie, and her contribution to the franchise is greatly appreciated.

My favorite thing about this movie is "The Entity," and the fact that we never really know which events were the products of chance and which were the products of calculation. I suppose we'll find some of the answers in Part Two.

 

3. Evil Dead Rise

 

This movie or the recent Hellraiser reboot?  It's a close race for me.  I think the Hellraiser reboot does a more a thorough job of re-imagining the mythos. while Evil Dead Rise has a slight edge in terms of technical accomplishment.

Whichever one you prefer, I think we can all agree that both movies are among the finest horror offerings of the past few years.  Both are stomach-churning, both don't waste any time getting down to business, and both are well acted and well directed efforts late leave more derivative films in the dust.

4. The Killer

David Fincher doesn't disappoint, and as if you needed further proof that Michael Fassbender would make a great James Bond, look no further than The Killer.  This film crackles from start to finish.

5. Leave the World Behind

Like The Killer another excellent Netflix offering. In this one the world might be ending or we might all just be victims of our own paranoia. Either way this movie sets a mood like nobody's business, and the camerawork is something to behold.

6. Maestro

Bradley Cooper directs, produces, co-writes and stars in this Leonard Bernstein biopic. His performance is impressive enough, but costar Carey Mulligan somehow outshines him. I'd be surprised if she wasn't at least nominated for an Oscar next year.

 

Some Good Ones

1. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

I don't quite understand all the hate this move is getting.  Is it perfect?  Far from it, but it's certainly not the worst superhero movie ever made.

As most people probably gathered from the trailer, Kang the Conqueror has brought Scott Lang and his entire family into the quantum realm, and they'll have to work together to escape back to our world.  In tone this movie reminded me a lot of the Star Wars franchise, though of course certain elements of the quantum realm are more hallucinogenic than anything seen in Star Wars.

None of the characters aside from Jonathan Majors' Kang are especially interesting, and the ending of this movie is a foregone conclusion.  Some of the special effects sequences could have used some more work, and both Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily are starting to look their age.  That fight at the end?  Paul Rudd doesn't look like that would have gone well for him in real life, either.

But all told this movie's harmless fun.  It's too talky, it tells where it should have shown, and the ending is genuinely perplexing, but it's harmless fun.  If nothing else Ant-Man's motivations made more sense than whatever was going on in Avatar: The Way of Water, and this movie wasn't trying to make some grand statement about man's environmentally unsustainable nature.

2. Creed III

One week I'm watching Jonathan Majors as the bad guy in Ant-Man 3, the following week I'm watching Jonathan Majors as the bad guy in Creed III.

Fortunately for me Creed III is much better than Ant-Man 3. The story makes more sense, it has more emotional impact, and Michael B. Jordan, who stars in this movie, is a competent director who makes some interesting choices. Creed III isn't up there with Creed or Rocky Balboa in terms of quality, but it's still a fine addition to the franchise.

And yes, there will be a Creed IV.

3. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

What?!?!  No Yoshi?  LAME.

...but of course he'll show up in the sequel.  And yes, there probably will be a sequel, because a) this movie is making a lot of money, and b) it's getting passable reviews.

My favorite part was that bit with Kid Icarus near the beginning.  Aside from that this movie picks up speed quickly and never slows down.  I didn't love it, but I did like it.  I'd definitely watch a sequel.

4. The Flash

It's goofy fun.  I wasn't loving the suit and I had issues with the CGI, but the story was engaging and the cameos were the best part of the film. If you, like me, grew up reading the comics you'll find a lot to like and a few things to dislike about The Flash. It's far from perfect, but MUCH better than Shazam: Fury of the Gods (below).

I wouldn't hold my breath on the sequel. Issues with Ezra Miller aside, the studio has previously stated that a sequel will only be greenlit if The Flash makes The Batman-level money. At the time of writing that seems very unlikely.

5. Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse

This movie is so hyper it makes Into the Spider-verse seem sedate by comparison.  It's far better than The Flash, and I'm looking forward to Beyond the Spider-verse closing out Miles Morales' frenetic saga.

6. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Crossover imminent! I won't say what franchise is joining the fold, but if you know your 80s toy lines and you've been following this stuff you can probably guess.

I have to say I was a little disappointed with this movie. It's not because it's worse than I expected, but rather because it's better than I expected. I was expecting a Fast X level of absurdity, and next to that movie this one is strangely coherent.

In Rise of the Beasts a guy that looks like Chris Cornell's little brother and a young woman with an inexplicably comprehensive knowledge of ancient cultures help Optimus Prime (and Optimus Primal!) thwart the world-ending menace that is Omicron.  Sorry, I meant Unicron. It's all familiar territory, but Rise of the Beasts is, when taken on its own terms, a well put together movie.

 

7. Barbie

 

The first half of this movie is very good; the second half is trying too hard to make various points.  They had me up until Ryan Gosling's big musical number, but after that I was scratching my head.  The mom's speech in Weird Barbie's house is especially jarring, and it seemed to belong to another movie entirely.  It's not bad, however, and Michael Cera steals every scene he's in. 

8. Air

Nike lands a deal with Michael Jordan and changes the sports apparel industry.  The ensemble nature of this movie reminded me of Argo, while the relationship between Matt Damon's and Ben Affleck's characters reminded me of The Last Duel.  In terms of overall import I wasn't finding anything especially life-affirming or informative about Air, but it's a well constructed movie with a good cast.

 

9. Renfield

 

Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage star in this comedic addition to the Dracula Cinematic Universe.  It doesn't strike the right balance between the funny scenes and the violence, but it's still worth watching. 

10. Sisu

A Finnish gold miner kicks Nazi ass in Lapland.  It's super manly, super violent and super silly.  Overall a fun two hours.

11. Dumb Money 

I walked into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about either the movie itself or the GameStop fiasco. The performances are good, but it comes off like a lesser version of The Big Short. I'm also not sure whether this film really makes the point it's trying to make. At the end of the day how was all that "drama" different from a night spent at a casino? And is it ever a surprise when the house wins?

12. Pain Hustlers

It follows a familiar trajectory, but this story of a pharmaceutical company's rise and fall is anchored by some great performances by Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia and Catherine O'Hara.

13. Nyad

An older woman attempts a swim between Cuba and the Florida Keys. Annette Bening and Jodie Foster cover familiar territory with this one, but it works well enough.

Apparently Nyad's real-life achievement has never been certified by the organizations responsible for doing so.  There are questions about the what rules should be applied to this endeavor, and whether it was sufficiently documented by the boat crew.

14. The Marvels

To some extent yeah, haters gonna hate.

But in my opinion this movie does exactly what it's supposed to do. The story is interesting and the characters' interactions make sense. My two biggest complaints are a) the villain's motivation is never adequately explained and b) this movie could have been wackier. That Disney princess scene? They were onto something there.

Gotta be real however, and say that my main takeaway from this movie is that Brie Larson is really, really pretty.  Sure, this film gives her more opportunities to act, but with this said I found myself lost in her eyes every time she appeared onscreen.

15. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Overall a satisfying conclusion to what, I can only assume, is Harrison Ford's last outing as the character.  It gets by on a certain amount of nostalgia, it borrows a lot from previous films, and James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg, but on the whole it's far, far better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Four things that bothered me, however: 1) the de-aging, 2) Indy's goddaughter is annoying and her presence doesn't add much to the plot, 3) some of the action scenes are disappointing, and 4) there's a scene where Indy's makes a HUGE assumption about what he sees in Archimedes' tomb.  Aren't you an archaeologist?  Maybe take another look at that "artifact?"

 

Good, but Bring a Pillow

1. Oppenheimer

What?!?!  I'm not bending over backward in praise of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer?  Well, I certainly can't say it's a bad movie, but it's certainly not always entertaining.  This story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's moral scruples with regard to shifting political affiliations and how they played into the development of the atomic bomb is definitely thought provoking, yet those uninterested in the study of quantum mechanics and the history surrounding the United States' nuclear program would be better served by Barbie above.

I did, however, like this movie a lot more than Nolan's previous film, Tenet.  It also serves as a showcase for Cillian Murphy, who may well go on to win an Oscar for his performance as Oppenheimer.

Oh, and bonus points for both Josh Hartnett and Dane DeHaan.  It's been a while since I've seen those guys in anything.

Fun Fact: Benny Safdie, who plays Edward Teller, is one of the Safdie Brothers who directed Uncut Gems.

Family.

1. Fast X

We're at the point with these movies where everyone knows where they stand with regard to them.  You love them or you hate them; there's no middle ground.  I've enjoyed almost all of them, even if I have to check my brain at the door to do so.

Jason Momoa is the best thing about this movie by far.  He must have had a blast doing this movie.  The rest of the cast is... fine, the action sequences (both the car chases and the fighting) are about as realistic as you'd expect, and in-between the cars and the violence you'll spot some memorably beautiful women.

Fun (?) Fact: The sequel should hit theaters in 2025.

 

Do You REALLY Like Wes Anderson Movies?  Are You Sure?

 

1. Asteroid City 

Depending almost entirely upon your disposition toward previously seen Wes Anderson movies, you'll either find this film clever and funny or pretentious and extremely irritating.  Given the position I've awarded this movie within this entry you can probably guess my feelings on the matter.  A play within a television show within a film?  Wooden deliveries and frames within frames within frames?  Eh, I'll most likely be skipping the next Wes Anderson movie.  I'd rather watch something like Fast X instead.

Some Bad Ones

1. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

So... the villain just floats there?  While the dome is shrinking?  And while the hero is obviously readying himself for some big move?  Whatever.

My biggest takeaway from this movie is that the actress playing Mary Marvel is smokin' hot.

In this sequel we see The World's Mightiest Mortal develop into a truly annoying person, complete with jokes that don't land and inner conflicts that don't always make sense.  I can't tell if more blame for this should be put on Zachary Levi, David F. Sanberg or the script, but whatever the reason Shazam -- the character around whom this movie revolves -- is the most unlikeable thing about it.  At around the halfway mark I was hoping Asher Angel would get more screen time just so that I'd see less of Zachary Levi.

And that cameo at the end.  More magic lightning and everything's suddenly OK?  Ugh, nothing screams writer's block like that kind of conclusion.  Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu's imponderable characters aside, that ending is the most grievous example of shoddy storytelling I've seen in quite a while.

 

2. Cocaine Bear

 

80s nostalgia + a bear + cocaine + various people lost in the woods.  It could've been a lot funnier, but the humor often misses the mark.  Cocaine Bear is, by the way, one of Ray Liotta's last movies.  He died in his sleep not long after production wrapped. 

3. Knights of the Zodiac

...or Saint Seiya, as many of us are used to calling it.

I'll be charitable and say this movie was aimed squarely at kids.  I'll furthermore applaud the actors and actresses in this film, who are somehow able to say their lines with straight faces.  And how is your "Cosmo" lately?  Have you learned to wield it properly?

Fun Fact 1: Mackenyu Maeda, the star of this movie, is Sonny Chiba's son.  He's now appearing as Roronoa Zoro in Netflix's One Piece series.

Fun Fact 2: Famke Janssen and Sean Bean in the same movie feel familiar?  They also appeared opposite one another in 1995's GoldenEye.

4. John Wick: Chapter 4

The first one was silly fun, the second and third were OK, but the fourth is where things get DUMB.  I could criticize the story, but what's the point?  No, for me a movie like this begins and ends with the fight choreography, and the fight choreography for the first half of this movie is just bad.  So many guys momentarily unconscious, so many guys waiting for their turn to punch or kick, so many guys aiming for the wrong part of the body...

As far as I'm concerned the critics can f*$k right off.  94% my ass.  This movie really isn't good.

5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Between his genuinely good movies, Chris Pine appears in movies like this one and Wonder Woman 1984.  Making a movie about the role playing game was always going to be an uphill battle, but Dungeons & Dragons could have been better.  Like John Wick 4 this one received "generally favorable reviews," but I can't help but think that these reviews were submitted by a much smaller audience.

6. Blue Beetle

Quite possibly the most forgettable CBM ever made.  Blue Beetle will remind you of SO many other comic book films, everything from Iron Man to Watchmen, and even the Latino angle isn't that original, given that we've already seen elements of their story in movies such as Wakanda Forever and Black Adam.

Back in the 90s kids would have been wearing Blue Beetle backpacks to school this fall, but in 2023 this movie just isn't original enough to inspire that kind of cross-promotion.

7. 65

Take that, Darwin! I'll have you know that fully functioning homo sapiens were alive and kicking 65 million years before the present!

This movie is almost too dumb for words. Not only is it light on the science and heavy on the fiction, but Adam Driver's character and the young girl are so busy having "moments" that you start to root against them. I can only hope that the screenwriters  never get a script optioned again.

8. Trolls Band Together 

It's just not funny. It's super hyper, super colorful, but the jokes that made the first two accessible to adults aren't there. You might chuckle a bit at all the boy band references, but the remainder of this movie made me sleepy.

9. Rebel Moon

Quite possibly the most pompous science fiction movie ever made. Take Star Wars, add Gamora's backstory from Infinity War, and throw in a dash of Avatar and that's pretty much Rebel Moon.  The dialogue can only be described as fanfiction gone very, very wrong, and upon a first viewing one can only express sympathy for the members of the cast, given that crawling out from under this movie will be no easy feat.

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"Undiscovered Country" Volumes 1-3 by Scott Snyder, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Others (2020-2022)

I'm not that familiar with Scott Snyder.  I think I read some Superman comics he wrote, a series spotlighting different times in Superman's life?  Something like that.  I didn't finish the series.

I'm also unfamiliar with the artist on Undiscovered Country.  This fact isn't that unusual though.  I'm unfamiliar with many artists working today.

The story?  It's somewhat difficult to encapsulate, but long story short it's the future, America has gone "off grid," and several representatives from what's left of the rest of the world venture into the mysterious blank spot on the map that used to be the United States.

Thereafter these representatives are tasked with "walking the spiral," i.e. passing through all 13 of the former America's sovereign states.  Each of the 13 zones they pass through represents a failed attempt at utopia, the first being a Libertarian, Mad Max-style place where anything goes, the second being a Matrix-type world where the distinction between human and machine is less significant, and the third being a kind of amplified Hollywood, where dreamers engage in unfettered acts of creation.

Eh, it's OK.  All in all it reminded me of One Piece, though One Piece is of course more whimsical.  Undiscovered Country isn't quite boring, but it does seem very derivative at times.  This type of "future assessment of a postapocalyptic America" has been done to death in comics, Watchmen, The One and Give Me Liberty providing but a few examples.  And besides that, something like One Piece is just more fun.  Repetitive, yes, but more fun.

I probably won't be continuing with this series.  As it is I've read through 18 chapters of it, and I can't see future installments improving much upon what's already been published.

Oh, and by the way, you can read the first issue online.

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"Saturn Run" by John Sandford and Ctein (2015)

"Worst of all, they hadn't arrived at their destination, not really.  They'd still need to make another pass through Saturn's atmosphere before they'd be able to match orbits with the alien operation."

John Sandford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of many, many books.  He started out writing for the Miami Herald and then transitioned into the writing of novels.  He's best known for his Prey series of detective novels, two of which were adapted into TV movies.  Ctein, his cowriter on Saturn Run, is a more colorful figure.  His main business seems to be photography, but he "has degrees in English and Physics" and he's "researched" various scientific topics.  Like many such people he lives in San Francisco.

In Saturn Run humanity learns of an alien outpost hidden in Saturn's rings.  After learning of this outpost the United States and China launch semi-covert missions to this outpost, each striving to arrive there first.  The Americans, piloting a slower but surer course, and the Chinese, piloting a faster but more uncertain course, both regard the acquisition of alien technology as essential to their nations' continued survival.  With the political tensions between the two countries forming a potent backdrop, both sides race to Saturn in the face of numerous obstacles.

Fans of hard science fiction and space exploration will be all over this book.  It was very well researched -- to the point where the spaceships' respective journeys were modeled on a computer -- and there's even a postscript at the end describing the science behind the story.  This scientific basis doesn't always make for the easiest reading, but it does add a great deal of realism to the narrative.  This narrative, by the way, is full of interesting and convincing characters, and their reasons for doing what they do always seem to make sense within the context of the story.  I assume most of the science part was the work of Ctein, while the heavy lifting with regard to the actual writing was done by John Sandford.

If I have complaints about this book it's that a) it veers a little too closely to Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two, and b) some of the Chinese crew members act a little too "American" in the first half of the book.  The "Mandarin" they sometimes use is also a bit silly, with some of their phrases  being obvious translations of English phrases that wouldn't be used in Chinese, (i.e. "What the hell?").

But these complaints are small ones.  Overall Saturn Run is an excellent book, and perhaps the best co-written book I've ever read.  The two authors of this novel complement each other well, and I hope they collaborate again in the future.

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