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This is econ talk, part of the library of economics and liberty. I'm russ roberts; our guest is author matt ridley. The subject of to day's discussion is how innovation works. This is matt's fourth appearance on econ talk. He was last year in february 20, sixteenh talking about his book, the evolution of everything. We'd love to hear from you.

What's the difference between invention and innovation? Could it be that innovation--the process of making a breakthrough invention available, affordable, and reliable--is actually the hard part? In this week's EconTalk episode, author Matt Ridley talks about his book How Innovation Works with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Ridley argues that we give too much credit to inventors and not enough to innovators--those who refine and improve an invention to make it valuable to users. Along the way, he emphasizes the power of trial and error and the importance of permissionless innovation.