"How Innovation Works" by Matt Ridley

Matt's books are all good. This one is a history of innovation and how there is almost never any "eureka moment" - but rather a long line of inventions, testing (Thomas Edison tested 6000 plant materials before he found bamboo as the first lightbulb filament), market needs... it's a long process. People tend to overestimate the short-term impact of innovation but underestimate the long-term impact. He also talks about the fact that governments and large corporations are poor innovators - that lobbying for regulating the status quo is a huge barrier and becoming a problem. For example, of Europe's 100 most valuable companies, not one has been formed in the last 40 years. It seems likely that, if we're not careful, innovation will shift to other markets with less regulatory burdens.