Fear of making bad trades

This started as a book review of "Rational Optimist" by Matt Ridley and then turned into a personal note about a fear of being taken advantage off.

The main thesis of the book are:

• Specialized production and diversified consumption lead to wealth
• Trade is necessary for specialization (trade is a distinctly and universal human idea)

At first I thought the book would just be another recollection of "look how great the world is doing compared to 50 years ago" stats. And while there are certainly many stats, the book does a lot more then collecting those. Matt goes deep into the role of trade in human evolution. From agriculture, to cities, to language. Trade played a key role in distributing good ideas/explanations and creating wealth for those who voluntarily participated.

On a personal note I find it very interesting how negative my own beliefs have been towards trade. Similarly to how I viewed negotiating negatively, which I described in the post about "Never Split the Difference".

It's sure good that I have my guards up but living under constant tension because of fear of being taken advantage makes my life worse. The fact is that without voluntary trade we would all be worse off and Matt Ridley does an excellent job in explaining that.

Since I read Rational Optimist, it came more naturally to be thankful for being able to engage in trades.