INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates“Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —… and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates
”Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.” – Former U.S. President Barack Obama
Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.
When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.
In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).
Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases.
It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.
Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future.
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“This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance…Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.
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This book is just what the 1% want you to read. It explains away misery and poverty and just plain, ordinary life with mis-read statistics. In fact, just recently at Zavos Bill Gates’ use of the first argument in this book was widely ridiculed and immediately proven to be untrue by the web and the world-wide media. Do not waste your time. OR perhaps you should read it to begin to understand how MISUNDERSTOOD, we, the 99%, are by the elite.
Incredible book that really opens the door for the future we need
I’m always into skeptics and those who go against the grain, even when they are skeptical and go against the grain to a fault. Scott Adams has a great passage in his incredible God’s Debris where he expresses skepticism about ESP skeptics.
Not skepticism about ESP mind you, but skepticism about those who are skeptical of ESP.
Now that is skepticism.
Hans Rosling represents skepticism, going against the grain and naysaying in the most positive way.
In short – we are biased into thinking the world is worse than it is.
Rosling and company prove that the world is better than we think with quite a bit of data
In short:
* The standard of living of the average citizen of the world is getting better
* War and violence are at an all time low
* Sickness and famine are at an all time low
* The media gives headlines to the bad things, and we consider this happening all the time
Rosling and his team give data after data showing why this is not the case.
The world is not getting worse. It is getting better.
Here are my minor, minor, minor disagreements with this book
I have to show these disagreements with a grain of salt because –
1) They are outside the scope of what this book is answering
2) If anything Factfulness sets the table to allow us to address these questions – but here they are
Minor Disagreement 1 – What now?
This book answers a lot of questions, except – what are we supposed to do now? Just keep on keeping on?
It’s outside the scope of this book, but a more complete answer would be –
Instead of concerning ourselves with a, b and c, which we do now, we should concern ourselves with x, y and z.
Factfulness tells us not to worry about a, b and c, and the book may be right.
But what should we concern ourselves with?
Minor disagreement 2 – Beware Voltaire’s Pangloss
Voltaire had two main characters in his world-changing book Candide – Candide, and Pangloss, above.
Candide questioned everything – and at the time, the questions were – Why should we have slavery? Why should we have war?
Pangloss, his cheerful comrade – practiced Philosophical Optimism, which as it turns out is neither particularly philosophical nor optimistic.
Pangloss was always happy because ‘the world is living in its best possible state.’ That’s Philosophical Optimism – everything is great, no need to change courses.
Candide thought we could do better.
As it turns out, Candide was right, and Voltaire launched the Enlightenment, aka the century of Voltaire.
Again – Rosling and his team have given a gift to the world – but still, I have to be a bit skeptical. The World is great for myself and probably most everyone reading Factfulness, but I have to beware Pangloss. The world can be better, and trying to be aware of this is a good thing.
Minor disagreement 3 – The Environment
Humanity has brought an extinction event to this world. Overpopulation is real, and environmental destruction is beyond real.
Factfulness may paint a great picture for our future, but not for the environment. That outlook is beyond horrible. It’s no one’s fault, except for raw population numbers – but still, no book can paint a good picture on this. We need to be pessimistic in the right way, and we need action.
But make no mistake – this is an incredible book
My disagreements above fall under the ‘great works deserve full audits’ category.
And this is a great work. It goes against the grain, and brings data to support its argument.
And though it does not answer every question, it sets us up to give a better answer for them.
So yes, this is incredible! I highly recommend it.
The media tends to focus on bad news, which often makes us feel overwhelmed and cynical, but this book uses facts and statistics to show us that the world is actually getting better in many areas. Rosling conveys information, including mini-questionnaires, in an entertaining and engaging way. Most of us get the answers to these questions wrong, no matter where we live or how educated we are. I’m happy to be wrong. This book has given me more hope for the future of humankind and will remind me that we often don’t hear the good news. I highly recommend this book. It will balance out the constant bombardment of bad news.
The book opens with a brief quiz about the world. I was quite surprised to find out that I scored lower than a chimpanzee would–as does everyone else who takes the quiz. The “fact” is that the world has progressed and gotten better, as a result of incremental changes over time. So the small year-by-year changes don’t get noticed. Using research and data, the author shows how much the world has changed, the various kinds of faulty reasoning that can lead to misconceptions, and how to evaluate statistics and data to get an accurate picture. If my description of the book sounds a little boring, don’t judge the book by it. Factfulness is fascinating.
Simply brilliant. Puts into perspective how things really are versus the perpetual doom and gloom scenarios reported daily by the media. Essential reading.
Why we don’t see the great things happening in the world. The book encourages the reader to dig into all aspects of information to overcome biases
Fascinating look at the world
In this day of ubiquitous Chicken Littles, it’s affirming to learn that while the world isn’t as good as it could be, it’s a darn sight better that we’ve been told!
A surprising looks at how to think in the context of world health. A must read for everyone.
This book feels important, educational and also humorous. Speaking for myself I found it easy to read and convincing, I’m an American in my 60s and not interested in politics- this is not political. I borrowed this book and I plan to get my own copy to re-read and reference.
Finally, someone to lift us up from the world new media and let us know what’s REALLY going on. If you’ve been depressed about all the bad things happening in the world, Hans will give factful information to help you realize the world is really in much better shape than we think.
This book gives a new way to understand the world and to filter to information that we get from the media, the internet and social media. Our understanding of the world as it really exists is awful
Such insight and humility how many times we fail to understand a situation and make decisions based on incomplete information Hans should be a must read for us all I would choose this as the best book I have read in years thank you for your wisdom and love of humanity
It will change your outlook on the world for the better.
Excellent; presents a new way of looking at big data.
The world is getting better, not worse. Hans Rosling has all the statistics and stories. Beat your depression, read this book.
W just don’t know what we don’t know! Even the monkeys know more than the humans by accident.
Extremely important and educational book. A must read for everyone!
Full,of useful ways to rate and interpret statistics
Outstanding! Another excellent work that punctures the myth of common sense. Recommended for anyone who tires of the doom and gloom histrionics of the media.