" This book isn’t an attempt to identify the fifty most economically significant inventions. It’s not a book-length listicle, with a countdown to the most important invention of all. Indeed, some that would be no-brainers on any such list haven’t made the cut: the printing press, the spinning jenny, the steam engine, the airplane, and the computer. "

― Tim Harford , Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy