Midway through Ryan Avent’s “The Wealth of Humans”, I found myself marking “H” in the margin, to stand for heresy, so thick and fast do the counterintuitive insights arrive. Here are some. Money is not what motivates work; the best workers care little for a share of profits. State-led redistribution would do little harm, and has barely been attempted. My favourite: a sensible route to a secure living in the future is to aim not for high productivity, but for some extravagantly unproductive niche such as making artisanal cheese, where low productivity is a selling point.