What Jared Diamond thinks about innovation

@jared-diamond · 24 positions · On ppll ↗

Geographer at the University of California, Los Angeles; author of Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), Collapse (2005) and Upheaval (2019).

Jared Diamond did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

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Only Jared Diamond on innovation. See everyone on innovation

3 dated positions, c. 1997–2005, in their own words. Our reading of what Jared Diamond has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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1. c. 1997–2005

   Our readingInvention is often the mother of necessity, not the reverse

   Their wordsinvention is often the mother of necessity, rather than vice versa.

   ↗Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (W. W. Norton, 2005 edition; first published 1997)archive.org All 7 from this book

3. c. 1997–2005

   Our readingMost inventions come from curiosity and tinkering, not from a demand for them

   curiosity

   Their wordsIn fact, many or most inventions were developed by people driven by curiosity or by a love of tinkering, in the absence of any initial demand for the product they had in mind.

   ↗Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (W. W. Norton, 2005 edition; first published 1997)archive.org All 7 from this book

5. c. 1997–2005

   Our readingFarming was not adopted in a vacuum but in competition with other ways to eat

   Their wordswe should not suppose that the decision to adopt farming was made in a vacuum, as if the people had previously had no means to feed themselves.

   ↗Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (W. W. Norton, 2005 edition; first published 1997)archive.org All 7 from this book