Simon, cool. What about this talk appealed to you?

I've been reading his book (slowly). It seems to me like a significant piece of work that people will be referencing for decades. He takes a very long historical view of the world economy, which gives a different perspective than we usually get. E.g. mostly we hear that a growth rate of more than 3% is normal and what we should expect, but Picketty says that 1-2% is more common over recent centuries and the high growth rates in the 20th century and recently in the developing world are unusual cases. That's just one tidbit out of tons of stuff in the book, of which I've only read about a quarter

A slower growth rate does seem more sustainable. And enjoyable since we'd be overextending less.