More From Less
More From Less by Andrew McAfee
My coffee cup rating 4/5:
☕️ ☕️ ☕️ ☕️
“If we are to bring the broad masses of the people in every land to the table of abundance, it can only be by the tireless improvement all our means of technical production.”
Winston Churchill was right. Access to the table of abundance is steadily increasing for so many of us, right before our eyes. The World is universally getting better (contrary to what's heard from the media) and there is data to back it up. But how did this happen, and can we continue innovating without fully depleting resources and destroying the planet? This question is a big topic in Andrew McAfee's new book, More From Less.
The main character in this story of More from Less is a little guy called capitalism. Even though capitalism seems to be getting a bad rap, especially in today's day in age, it's the reason why increasing amounts of humanity enjoy a high quality of life. McAfee is quick to point out that capitalism is a subject people have very strong opinions about. I think Andrew did a great job debunking the myths and explaining what capitalism is, and what it isn’t.
Although capitalism has some very strong pros, it isn't perfect. This is where McAfee’s four horsemen of the optimist come into view, which he names accordingly- tech progress, capitalism, responsive government, and public awareness. These four horsemen have been closely connected and responsible for much of the growth and dematerialization the world has seen. Take technology, for example. Just 30 years ago, you needed a separate device for taking pictures, video, phone calls, and listening to music. Now you have all of those things and more in one device in your pocket. McAfee cites another example of dematerialization, the aluminum can. In 1959, Coors pioneered the aluminum can to hold their beer. These cans were heavy, weighing in at 85g. But with many design changes and innovations, aluminum cans produced in 2011 weighed only 12.75g.
Pollution is something we have historically been apathetic about controlling. This problem was at the heart of a movement birthed in 1970 called Earth Day. Since its inception, we have made excellent progress in cleaning up our act-especially related to pollution. McAfee cites many examples, including this statement from the EPA website “Compared to 1970 vehicle models, new cars, SUVs and pickup trucks are 99% cleaner for common pollutants (hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particle emissions)." What's even better news is that many of the pessimistic predictions birthed by Earth Day ended up being very, very, wrong. Like this one from Life magazine, " Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution... By 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the earth by half.”
That got me thinking, what other things have we got wrong about many issues of today? Even with all of our current data and algorithms, it all comes back to the interpretations of the numbers. Which leads me to a criticism some other reviewers have about this book- McAfee did not provide enough data to prove his point. I can see that. I don't believe that was solely what he was trying to do though. The numbers and graphs are there to support an argument. At the end of the day no matter how many numbers or charts you have, you are only as good as your argument, which I think McAfee did a great job of presenting.
The bottom line is this- if you are an optimist, you will probably enjoy this book. For the pessimist, maybe not so much.