"Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think" by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, and Ola Rosling

Rajul Singh: The book presents interesting data on various topics in a synthetic and highly visual way, the actions that we have to take to try to combat the ignorance in which the majority of the population is immersed when drawing conclusions about the development of humanity, that is, stop believing that the world and everything that happens in this is getting worse every day.

The only problem I see for the author is that, although he updates the global statistical data, he does not compare them with quality of life indices of the 21st century. That is, 50 years ago, it was normal and acceptable that a middle-class person did not have Internet or transportation, did not have a cell phone, had to agree to receive water or electricity service for a few hours a day, even not having these services, because indeed at that time there was not yet enough technology or the advances required to carry out such projects. Today the situation is different. Thanks to advances in science, technology, and health. As the years go by and with scientific progress in health, technology, education, or employment increases, the development of populations must also go hand in hand with...

India on Sep 17, 2023

楠田ゆかり: 世界の事情に対して自分がいかに偏見を持っていたかがわかりました。
何度も読み返し、最後のところで感動してしまいます。世界はよくなっている。

Japan on Sep 04, 2023

青森市の洋書大好き会社員: ユヴァル　ノア　ハラリの書籍を読んで、世界は核の脅威、生態系の変化の脅威、テクノロジーの発展の脅威、この3つの脅威に晒されていることを学びました。

今、ウクライナ戦争、収まってきてはいますが、コロナウィルスの脅威もあります。

メディアは、特に悪い出来事をセンセーショナルに取り上げ、人々にネガティブなイメージを植え付けます。

ハンス　ロズリングの本を読み、世界は良くなってきていると少し楽観的になりました。根拠のない楽観ではなく、確かなデータがいくつもあります。今、発展途上国という言葉じたい無くさなければなりません。極貧の生活をしている人は世界の9%です。その他の人たちは多くが中流の生活をしています。

教育、寿命、医療、ワクチン接種率、その他、さまざまな分野で人々の生活は良くなってきています。

自分たちはもっと今の暮らしに感謝しなければならないことを気づかせてくれる一書です。

Japan on Aug 26, 2023

Joao Beraldo: Hans ensina como entender o mundo é importante para mudá-lo e para isso nada melhor que fatos e dados. Aproveite!

Brazil on Aug 03, 2023

edsetiadi: Hans Rosling is a phenomenal human being. He’s a Swedish physician and epidemiologist whom had worked in many poorest villages in the world - like in Mozambique, Zaire, and Tanzania - had taught and gave speeches in many more places around the world from his native Sweden to India to Canada to Iran to Vietnam, and also had worked with many UN agencies, influencing global elites from Melinda Gates, to Mark Zuckeberg, to Al Gore, to Fidel Castro, and the many Davos crowds along the way.

He is one of the most qualified persons to teach about global health, and perhaps one of few people who have the right to be pessimistic about the world, considering what he had witnessed and experienced directly in the world. But yet, his life's work and mission is the total opposite of that. In a world where the majority of news headlines are giving us the impression that the state of the world is getting worse by the day, Rosling appears with the counter perception with undisputed arguments: through data and charts.

This book is the culmination of this mission. With a kind and worldly professor vibe, which is reflected in the relaxed tone of his writing (and the fun fact that he's...

United States on Apr 03, 2022

Atul Kumar SinghAtul Kumar Singh: I just finished this book yesterday and to be honest, I have mixed feelings of what this book talks about.
The book literally begins with a tone of “Why I am right and everyone is wrong” – because I gave simple questions to a lot of people and they all got it wrong. Well, people got it wrong because they have been conditioned to it, it’s the failure of our education and society in general, nothing wrong with that. The whole premise of the book is that we need to open up our eyes to the wide array of positive changes that are taking place in the world, and the world is getting better at most of the metrics be it child mortality, per capita income, healthcare, deaths to due to diseases, children being vaccinated, literacy levels, gender equality and what not. On the face of it, yes, mostly the world is getting better and it can be proved with data and statistics.

What did I like about the book?
1. Rosling tells you to believe that world is getting better (and he proves so with the use of data), and at the same time keep an eye out for the bad things (because they need to be improved too). I think this is a realistic world view, where you celebrate the progress...

India on Mar 20, 2019

Abeer Y. Hoque: “I didn’t see what I wanted to see. I saw what I was afraid of seeing. Critical thinking is always difficult abut it’s almost impossible when we are scared.”

I heartily recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling and his co-authors Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund. My bookclub picked it because the subtitle (ten reasons we’re wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think) sounded hopeful and we’re all hungry for hope. And I have to say, aside from all the ways Rosling shows how we misinterpret the world and how to combat our all too human instincts, reading it actually did have a wonderfully calming effect!

Rosling outlines 10 basic instincts that plague our perceptions of the world: The Gap Instinct, the Negativity Instinct, the Straight Line instinct, the Fear instinct, the Size instinct, the Generalization instinct, the Destiny instinct, the Single Perspective instinct, the Blame instinct, and the Urgency instinct. I found myself guilty of almost all of them in very obvious ways, and probably the ones I didn’t recognize, I’m also playing out in some subconscious (to myself) way.

“Stay open to new data, and be prepared to...

United States on Jul 31, 2018