Matt Ridley
Matt Ridley
Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley DL FRSL FMedSci, known commonly as Matt Ridley, is a British journalist who has written several popular science books. He is also a businessman and a Conservative member of the House of Lords...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 February 1958
changed fast life people society species
If people are all the same underneath, how has society changed so fast and so radically? Life now is completely different to how it was 32,000 years ago. It's changed like that of no other species has. What's made that difference?
collected history natural obsession realized science spent time vaguely wanting youth
I started out wanting to be a naturalist. My obsession in my youth was with bird-watching. I collected things, I spent a lot of time outdoors. I only vaguely realized that science was a little more than natural history, but by then I was hooked.
accept appetite declining economic efforts frozen people persuade recessions remind retreat sake stagnation standard whatever
I sense very little appetite for green efforts to persuade people to accept a frozen or declining standard of living for the sake of the environment. Recessions remind us that economic retreat or stagnation is painful, whatever the goal.
almost beauty chap commerce corner counter front grab huge interest people possible shop wants
I think if you put people in front of some huge temptation where it's possible to grab as much as they can for themselves, almost everyone will. The beauty of commerce is that it mutes that. The chap behind the counter in the corner shop has no interest in short-changing you, because he wants you to come back.
enable inch wide
I thought journalism would enable me to be a mile wide and an inch deep.
anytime coming convinced imagine lived
I can't imagine not coming back to New Orleans, ... We've lived here all of our lives, and we don't take it for granted. We don't know how long it's going to be before we have to make this choice. We're pretty convinced that we're not coming back anytime real soon.
became bleak cheated explosion famine felt future genuinely global might next possible teenager
I felt cheated by the way grown-ups told me that the future of the world was bleak when I became a teenager in the 1970s. The pollution explosion was unstoppable. Global famine was inevitable. I genuinely want the next generation, my own kids, to know that actually it's possible that the future might be better than the past.
break feeling figure kids lost lowest million moment people point reality start trying watching wife
The reality sunk in that we had no place to live, and we had to find it, ... We had no place for our kids to go to school, and we had to find that. We didn't know about my job, and we had to figure that out. And you're one of a million people trying to do that. It was the moment of feeling like we lost everything and we had to start over. For me, the lowest point was watching my wife come to that realization and break down in tears.
believe biology bought brief buy copy history jargon molecular strongly terrifying time
It's terrifying the way molecular biology has become more and more jargon ridden. But I strongly believe that my book can be read by the intelligent layman. I want everyone who bought a copy of 'A Brief History of Time' to buy a copy of 'Genome'.
five rarely rewrite sentence time
I try and get it right the first time. I may rewrite a sentence four or five times, but I rarely go back and kill a whole page and rewrite it.
capital hard misery people sorry television watching
Watching those people on television made it hard to feel sorry for myself, ... That was misery - capital M.
bound faster mate meet
Nowadays, ideas can meet and mate very much faster than before, and the Internet is only accelerating this process. So innovation is bound to accelerate.
means
I opted for a freelance writing career. I was lucky enough to have the means to do it.
encourage government mainly
Government can encourage innovation, but mainly by doing less, not doing more.