Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Learn how Patrick Matthew’s overlooked insight into the theory of evolution shows why execution, not just inspiration, drives real impact.

In Episode 246 of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a historical tale involving a Scottish landowner named Patrick Matthew, who quietly articulated the principles of natural selection 28 years before Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Unlike Darwin, Matthew never acted on his discovery, burying it in an appendix of a book about naval timber.

This episode serves as a reminder that ideas, no matter how brilliant, are worth little without execution. Mark and Shawn also discuss the impact of story delivery and how famous figures such as Darwin help anchor and elevate lesser-known stories.

Explore our upcoming events here.

For your story bank

Tags: Storytelling, Innovation, Science, Historic, Ideas, Execution

This story starts at 6:43

Back in 1831, a Scottish landowner named Patrick Matthew wrote a book on naval timber. The book was all about how to grow, manage, and harvest timber for shipbuilding, which was a critical industry in the early 19th century.

Buired the appendix, Matthew wrote that more organisms are born than can survive, and that those better adapted to their environment are more likely to persist. Over time, he explained, these adaptations shape the survival and characteristics of species. In essence, he described the mechanism of natural selection—something we now associate entirely with Charles Darwin.

This was 1831. Darwin hadn’t even set sail on the HMS Beagle yet.

Matthew’s description wasn’t just a passing comment. It spanned several pages and laid out a concept remarkably similar to what Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace would later publish. But the key difference was that Matthew didn’t pursue the idea. He didn’t develop it, test it, or promote it. It was simply left there in an appendix, unnoticed.

Fast forward 28 years to 1859, and Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species. The book creates a scientific stir, and Darwin is credited as the father of evolutionary theory. Wallace had also independently arrived at the theory and, with humility, supported Darwin taking the lead because of his extensive research and correspondence.

When Patrick Matthew saw all this happening, he was understandably surprised. He wrote to The Gardener’s Chronicle pointing out that he had published the same idea back in 1831. Darwin responded in the third edition of Origin, acknowledging that Matthew had indeed come to the same conclusion, but it had gone completely unnoticed. Darwin noted that the idea had been “briefly given” and “scattered” across several passages, buried in a way that made it hard for anyone to pick up on. In contrast, Darwin wrote thousands of letters, gathered countless specimens and observations, and built a robust foundation for his theory.