Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos /

1st edition, reissued (1995), 311 pages This is another of the twenty books that Charlie Munger recommends in the 2nd edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack (which I cannot recommend more highly). When a very widely read and highly effective thinker like Munger gets to eighty years old and recommends a list of just twenty books, I think one would be justified in expecting all of them to be pretty good. Even so, as I make my way through his list I find myself pleasantly surprised at just how good some of them are. The clarity of thought Hardin demonstrates in this book is simply superb. There is an important difference comparing this book to most others. Because so much of his subject matter (the subtitle is: `Ecology, Economics and Population Taboos') is smeared over by taboo and emotion, Hardin appears to have decided that in order to deal with this problem he also needs to demonstrate how to think properly. Thus it is really two books in one: a manual on how to think effectively and a treatise on his chosen subject. For example, he hammers home the importance of default positions to provide the foundation for critical judgement (in economics: there's no such thing as a free lunch; in psychology: reward determines behaviour; in ecology: and then what?). I am left with a feeling of gratitude towards both Munger and Hardin - without either of whom I would not have read this marvellous book.

Though the main emphasis is on the population sustaining aspects of our environment and planet, one should not miss other economical, numerate, and ecological insights that the sharp mind of Garrett Hardin provides with this edition, and in all of his other writings. As a follow-up (in my view) to his excellent Filters of Folly, Hardin again demonstrates his sharp insights on a multitude of endeavors that just don't relate specifically to population. To name a few excellent anecdotes which with full relevance of sharp thought include such topics as economic discussions on scale factors, the human nature of foxes and hedgehogs to grasp the big idea, compound interests as the eighth wonder, Islamic thoughts on usury, the law of diminishing returns, to the fact that "One can never merely do one thing", and more... Therefore, whether you consider yourself an Economist, Ecologist, Environmentalist, or just your average Autodidact, one can can surely benefit from Hardin's thoughts. Highly recommended.

This book is essential reading. As someone lucky enough to have called Garrett Hardin my friend, I was once with him at one of his book signings in Santa Barbara, California. As two rather prosperous looking young women rushed by his display table, one said to the other: "`Limits'--I don't like it!" After which Hardin turned to me with a twinkle in his eye and said, "You see, she just summarized my whole problem." But one of the things that Professor Hardin is still teaching us, through his books and his students, is that once we accept the fact that the world has real ecological limits--for example, we stop assuming that we can cram a quarter-billion people into America, or that affordable substitutes for finite resources like oil and topsoil will be generated magically by the marketplace--the quality of our lives will actually improve. It is something like the little boy who has many scattered ambitions, from cowboy to Superman, upon reaching maturity being able to focus in on the adventure of passionately pursuing life's real possibilities. In his own life Hardin was anything but grim. Garrett Hardin just wanted to help our society grow up and, as said in Corinthians, put away childish things.

Reading this book was a revelation. In clear and precise prose, Hardin articulated all the feelings I'd had after years of observing people and their behavior. In the same way overly zealous Christians force the bible upon non-believers, I press this book and its ideas upon others. If everyone were to read this one single book and adhere to its simple and logical tenets, the world would be a reasonable and content place. What is even scarier than the future word we are going to inherit due to the people who impose misguided policies upon others solely to feel good about themselves is the fact that NO ONE outside of universities knows of this man or his books. I occasionally discuss his most famous essay The Tragedy of the Commons with some of the students in my college classes, and even though they all freely admit that his arguments and reasoning are irrefutable, they still think he's wrong because they "don't like" what he's saying. They offer no response or logical counter offer, they just "don't like it." Sadly, these people vote and shape our world, and the majority of my community unfortunately feels the same. If you have any interest in learning better and more productive ways of making choices and viewing the world regardless of the attractiveness of those guidelines, I cannot recommend this book enough.

A book about population and worldly limits would be uninteresting, most people would say. Not so about this book. Garrett Hardin puts it strait to the point, with no bull or flowery language. This is good especially for me, because science is not particularly my strongest area of intrest. The author puts the scientific facts in everyday language. In this book Mr. Hardin exaust every possibility for counter theories on population growth. I recommend this book to anyone that will be living in the next century. I feel it almost to be a duty to know what is in store for this planet if kept at this current pace.