What do we really mean when we say that innovation drives progress? That deceptively simple conviction—that prosperity depends on a self-renewing cycle of ideas—has become the central article of faith in modern economics. It underlines everything from national research and development policies and startup incubators to the World Bank’s “knowledge economy” reports. When the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt “for explaining innovation-driven growth”, the committee was not just honouring three scholars. It was consecrating an entire way of seeing history: that human welfare advances when societies lower the barriers to discovery, and that growth once properly organised, can sustain itself indefinitely.