Derek Thompson

I mean, these are beautiful things that can happen. But also, I think the good life is about health. It's about health and it's about the wealth that comes and the freedom that comes from finding health in your own life.

And I am incredibly optimistic that we might be at the cusp of a real golden age in taking all these little ingredients that we've spent decades on, whether it's genomics and proteomics and a little bit of AI. We're at a moment right now, I hope,

And I am incredibly optimistic that we might be at the cusp of a real golden age in taking all these little ingredients that we've spent decades on, whether it's genomics and proteomics and a little bit of AI. We're at a moment right now, I hope,

And I am incredibly optimistic that we might be at the cusp of a real golden age in taking all these little ingredients that we've spent decades on, whether it's genomics and proteomics and a little bit of AI. We're at a moment right now, I hope,

where we can have this explosion of combinatorial intelligence and that hopefully, in an optimistic way, AI could be useful in accelerating us toward that future. But I also think, to the point of this book, we have to get institutions right too.

where we can have this explosion of combinatorial intelligence and that hopefully, in an optimistic way, AI could be useful in accelerating us toward that future. But I also think, to the point of this book, we have to get institutions right too.

where we can have this explosion of combinatorial intelligence and that hopefully, in an optimistic way, AI could be useful in accelerating us toward that future. But I also think, to the point of this book, we have to get institutions right too.

These are discoveries that are going to happen inside of institutions and how those institutions work and how they're funded and the incentives that are created by law or by technology really matter in terms of the world that we build.

These are discoveries that are going to happen inside of institutions and how those institutions work and how they're funded and the incentives that are created by law or by technology really matter in terms of the world that we build.

These are discoveries that are going to happen inside of institutions and how those institutions work and how they're funded and the incentives that are created by law or by technology really matter in terms of the world that we build.

And so that's why I think it's really important to not only be obsessed with what the technology can do, but how it's instantiated in the institutions that we have, because it ultimately is institutions and individuals that build the world, not technology acting on its own.

And so that's why I think it's really important to not only be obsessed with what the technology can do, but how it's instantiated in the institutions that we have, because it ultimately is institutions and individuals that build the world, not technology acting on its own.

And so that's why I think it's really important to not only be obsessed with what the technology can do, but how it's instantiated in the institutions that we have, because it ultimately is institutions and individuals that build the world, not technology acting on its own.

Ezra Klein, hello and welcome. I am thrilled to be on Plain English. What a wonderful and rare opportunity to talk to you about abundance. This is exciting. We're going to answer somewhere between 10,000 and 11 billion questions about this book in the next few weeks. So I wanted to hold this conversation to the relatively high bar of

Ezra Klein, hello and welcome. I am thrilled to be on Plain English. What a wonderful and rare opportunity to talk to you about abundance. This is exciting. We're going to answer somewhere between 10,000 and 11 billion questions about this book in the next few weeks. So I wanted to hold this conversation to the relatively high bar of

What can we talk about together here that other interviewers probably won't even think to ask us? And the first thing that I thought of is that nobody else knows the story of why this book exists in the first place. So in my personal chronology, the story of this book starts in the fall of 2021.

What can we talk about together here that other interviewers probably won't even think to ask us? And the first thing that I thought of is that nobody else knows the story of why this book exists in the first place. So in my personal chronology, the story of this book starts in the fall of 2021.

I am rolling off of book leave for a related but distinct project on the history of technological progress in America. I haven't had a very easy time with book leave because, as it turns out, writing a book is, among other things, a total pain in the ass. But one of the themes of this progress book that I was writing was the distinction between invention and implementation.

I am rolling off of book leave for a related but distinct project on the history of technological progress in America. I haven't had a very easy time with book leave because, as it turns out, writing a book is, among other things, a total pain in the ass. But one of the themes of this progress book that I was writing was the distinction between invention and implementation.

Just because somebody comes up with a good idea does not mean that it's going to change the world. ideas are cheap, building is hard. And I'm rolling off of book leave with this idea sort of swimming in my head. And in September 2021, I see that you have published an essay in the New York Times that's called, quote, the economic mistake the left is finally confronting.