Customer Reviews
basted knowledge - By: Manuel Navarro Pastor, 14 Dec 2008 
This book may be quite inspiring for people with little knowledge of evolutionary theory. However its intellectual footing is weak, particularly when it refers to cognition & physics (e.g. "the Earth imports energy & exports entropy"). Also, unfortunately, the link made between evolutionary theory & economics does not seem very fruitful.
Economics is not seventeenth century physics - By: PhilosopherKing, 21 Nov 2008 
As someone who is deeply interestedin underlying ideas particularly philosophy - including the philosophy of science - I found this book interesting. Having obtained 'A' levelsin chemistry, mathematics & physics, I opted to read for a degreein mechanical engineering. This necessitated studying a number of subjects most of which were effectively branches of mathematics & physics. I reviewed the book "Engineering Mathematics" by Stroud on this site but I studied much more mathematics than foundin that bookin my second & third years. I spent a considerable amount of my time learning how to solve advanced differential equations.
When I left university, I joined an accountancy firm & as mentioned under my review of the book "Economics" by Lipsey, I slogged my way through "Positive Economics". I remember about 25 years ago saying to the economics lecturerin the canteen that much of economics that we were doing reminded me (conceptually) of some of my engineering problemsin e.g. statics & fluid mechanics & I said that it could probably be mathematicisedin a similar fashion. One week later my lecturer broughtin several books that were more advanced than what were we required to study for an accountancy examination & showed me that I was right. The advanced models were all based on equilibrium analysis & therefore differential equations could be used.
By the time that I came to read this book, I had recently read Robert Heilbroner's "The Worldy Philosophers" which I have reviewed on this site. The last chapters of this book had discussed new methods of researchingin economics including the possibility of devising 'experiments' to illustrate things such as buying & selling behaviour. I had also coincidently reread both Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" & Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species" & several popular books on evolution, complexity theory & chaos theory. As an accountant, I had also been researching into complex mathematical modelling software packages that can be used for developing complex business models & can go well beyond what Excel can do - although it can be usedin conjunction with Excel.
When I began reading this book it immediately made sense to me that the nineteenth century economists had tried to base economics on nineteenth century physics (or rather on seventeenth century physics) & by regarding prices & so on as obtaining equilibrium they believed that they could then model the situationin the same way as many (simple) mechanical systems can be modelled. Thus calculus can be applied & the problem becomes one of solving a series of differential equations. (QED).
The trouble is that economic systems don't necessarily tend towards equilibium. Advancesin mathematics e.g. complexity theory & chaos theory have demonstrated that there are systemsin economics, physics & elsewherein which equilibrium isn't necessarily even aimed at let alone reached. Some systems can end up permanently out of equilibium. Many processesin economics are analogous to to complex phenomena such as the weather or evolution. Models of increasing complexity can now be studied on powerful computers.
This whole subject is a very interesting, intricate & cross-departmental one & I seemed to come across this book (whether through serendipity or not I don't know) just at the right moment when I was the most prepared to absorb the information. Given the problems that we are now experiencing with our financial markets & within our economy it is imperative that we get our models right.
I enjoyed reading this thoughful & well written book.
How new thinking in economics and business can strengthen each other - By: L. van den Muyzenberg, 25 Feb 2008 It is hard to understand whyin the beginning of 2008 no economist is able to figure out what to do about the financial chaos starting with the sub-prime disaster. If you have read this book you will underst better why it is a chaos & why nobody has any answers. The economy is a complex system, that is chaotic, & anybody that claims to be able to predict what will happen will only be right by luck.
What did I learn from this book? Do not trust anybody that makes a prediction about a complex system. The idea of economic equilibriumin an economic system is absolute nonsense. There is still some hope. Whilst there are no states of equilibrium the changes are not random. It is not total chaos. The economic system like other complex systems has "emergent properties", like periods with wild gyrations & quieter periods. One can hope that with future research one can find out something useful about the causes of these emergent properties, as the basis for policy making.
Evolution is also a complex system. Organisms change at random due to genetic mutations. The mutations that survive & win, fit bestin the environment. It is not the survival of the fittest, the one that fights the hardest; it is the random mutation that thrives bestin the current environment. This contains an important lesson for business, may be even for competing economic systems. In the longer term wealthin business is created by innovation (these are the equivalent of mutations). Most successful companies fail to innovate because they only focus on improving their products, like more performance, lower costs & different style. To succeedin innovation the company mustin addition take the risk of investingin many mutations of which most will fail.
The book has the great merit of multi-disciplinary thinking. It brings together new thinkingin economics, business, evolution & complex systems & shows how these disciplines interact & can strengthen each other.
Radical Remaking the challenge established economics - By: Pan Tsang, 23 Jan 2008 In short, the book is hugely readable & communicate a significant idea that improve on the current weakness of traditional economic & herald a new era of economics rethinking & innovation. The books appears to be under-publicized & under-recognized, for perhaps it receive fiction from the established academic communities. The 'radical remaking' of economics challenges & invalidate some fundamental concepts such as equilibrium. It should be read by all economists who care economics.
Also it must be said Eric proved to be a good story teller, it blend biology, physics & economics together to demonstrate different concepts.
for instances,
- economic system is a evolutionary system, or complex adaptive system, where agents resemble biological evolution
- market dynamics create disequilibrium & the variation & fluctuation is an integral part of the system, invalidating existing simple equilibrium economics assumption.
Also it explain many underlying components of economic systems, network, the concept of 'design space' for innovation & creation of wealth & offer solutions & what-to-do policy implications for us. While the last section of policy implications is not ground-breaking, the gem of the book liesin the excellent part 2 & 3 explaining 'complexity economics' & 'how evolutions create wealth'.
It is very well written for the common reader, his advocacy & introduction of 'complexity economics' is persuasive & not least it bear academic rigour with over 50 pages of references.
The most importanant book I have read this year (and last) - By: anontonio, 16 Mar 2007 This book has been an inspiration to me not just once, but consistently over the past year.
Evolutionin business & marketing has often been used as a synonym for moving slowly or cautiously (asin "we need to be evolutionary not revolutionary"). Beinhocker shows us that not only is an evolutionary approach to strategy smart, it is the most radical approach.
All of the lessons here are applicable not only to business but any kind of endeavour - I've been applying what I learned here to marketing & media & will continue to do so.
