Our friend and colleague Tyler Cowen has just published a new book with a catchy title: The Complacent Class. At the risk of over generalization (pun intended), Professor Cowen’s book claims that North Americans are becoming intellectually lazy and spiritually complacent–more willing to settle for small or marginal improvements in existing methods and things and less willing to test risky and revolutionary large-scale ideas and projects. (Really? Sorry Elon Musk!) Professor Cowen is also producing a series of short and engaging lectures on video explaining the main ideas from his book. Although we disagree with Professor Cowen’s gloom and doom thesis, his videos are worth watching. (Self-recommending, as he likes to say!) Here is the first installment: