Freakonomics Radio
Honey, I Grew the Economy
Innovation experts have long overlooked where a lot of innovation actually happens. The personal computer, the mountain bike, the artificial pancreas — none of these came from some big R&D lab, but from users tinkering in their homes. Acknowledging this reality — and encouraging it — would be good for the economy (and the soul too).
Published in
8 min readDec 9, 2019
When you think about innovation these days, what kind of image comes to mind? Maybe a massive computer-science lab, or a well-funded medical-device workshop, or a flavor-profile laboratory run by a gigantic food company?
These are all true enough examples of corporate innovation — but they’re just the most visible sites of the innovation chain, the kind of photos you see in IPO slide decks for cutting-edge companies. They’re just the tip of the iceberg. Beneath that gleaming peak lie millions of underfunded, underappreciated home innovators.
The power of home innovation is significant, for both economic and metaphysical reasons. So why do mainstream economists mostly ignore it?
