Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy
by Tim Harford
Short histories of the plow, barbed wire, the shipping container, double-entry bookkeeping, the index fund and more, each showing how inventions reshape economies. Delightful.
Read it if…
you want economic history in bite-sized pieces.
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Skip it if…
you want a single narrative.
Try instead: Race Against the Machine →
Three things you will actually use
- Boring inventions change everything.
- Systems matter more than gadgets.
- Winners and losers in every invention.
Do this first
Read the chapters on the shipping container and the index fund.
Our verdict
Fifty inventions.
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Compare with other Entrepreneurship books
Race Against the Machine
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee · Entrepreneurship
The short version.
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