The 18th book I read in 2023 was ‘Invention and Innovation’ by Vaclav Smil Smil. I try and read one Smil book every year. It is a heavy, rather depressing, dose of reality that is a welcome juxtaposition to the never ending, oppressively optimistic tone of technology so popular in the West.

In this book Smil talks about great innovations that failed their initial promise (leaded gasoline, DDT, CFCs) and others that couldn’t compete (airships, nuclear fission, and supersonic flight) and yet others that never took off (tube travel, nitrogen-fixing grains, and nuclear fusion.)