We were talking about the Ayres and Nalebuff Why Not column and website at my law-
and-econ lunch last Thursday. The old columns are here
and the website is there. I realize that some
quotes I'd been teaching from Schumpeter's 1912 book,
The Theory of Economic Development, were relevant:
...
It is no part of his function to find or create new possibilities.
They are always present, abundantly accumulated by all sorts of people.
Often they are also generally known and being discussed by scientific or
literary writers.
...
For its success, keenness and vigor are not more essential than a
certain narrowness which seizes the immediate chance and nothing else."
"In the breast of one who wishes to do something new, the forces of
habit rise up and bear witness against the embryonic project.
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