Factfulness

Awakening book

This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It wakes me up and make me more humble about my knowledge of the world and my analytical capability.

It is well-written and the concepts are beautifully demonstrated.

The most important part of the book is that it is based on real life experiences that the author himself lived while he traveled to different parts of the world.

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A masterpiece!

Great content, better than I expected. The story was really good and I loved the examples from Hans life. It made the book more authentic.

The narrator did a great job, and made the experience very pleasant.

I can therefore recommend this book to everyone who want's to broaden there perspectives, become more sceptical, but in the same time, understand the world with a new set of eyes.

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An antidote to panic-driven worldviews

I put this book in the same category as Pinker’s recent Enlightenment Now and the earlier Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. The book provides a lot of facts about the world and how the world has changed over the last five decades, and the facts are indeed encouraging. Hans Rosling is careful to point out that he does not like being called an optimist because it insinuates some degree of naivety. Hans Rosling prefers to be called a realist, and I think – he sees the world as it is, including both problems and solutions. The fact that the world is getting better does not mean that it is perfect or that we can lean back and watch the show. However, it does mean that we are probably doing some things right and it is essential to identify those things so that we can keep doing them.

Unfortunately, the media are terrible at identifying things that work in the world, and they are especially poor at identifying gradual improvements in the world. Rather the media feeds on a disaster, crime, panic, and drama and since a world with 7 billion people will always have enough drama for 30 minutes of news, then that is what the media focus on, and that is what people see. Giving the media all the blame is probably not fair. The media, after all, live in symbiosis with media consumers – they tend to show what people watch and people like to attend a drama. There has been peace in Sweden for 200 years, and guess what, no war broke out today either! Amazing! No, that is not news. So how can we get out of this eternal loop of increasingly gloomy worldviews in a world where progress has never been more evident. Well, reading this book is probably a step in the right direction.

The books begin with some questions about the world. In low-income countries, how many girls finish primary school? Does the majority of the world population live in poor or middle-income countries? What is the life expectancy in the world today? What percentage of the world population are vaccinated today? People, because of their gloomy worldview, tend to get these questions completely wrong. Hans Rosling likes to compare the accuracy of different groups (including politicians and people working at the world bank who really ought to know the answer), to that of chimps. The chimps almost always outperform us because they don’t know anything about the world and therefore guess. But guessing turn out to be better than systematic pessimism, which seems to be the default among humans.

In the remaining part of the book, Rosling revisits each of these questions and based on data from undisputed sources he explains why, in all except one case, the correct and is also the most favorable answer. Poverty is going down drastically. Most people in the world live in middle-income countries. The percentage of girls finishing primary school is almost the same as for boys etc. Intermingled with these more data-driven passages, Rosling includes personal anecdotes from his long career as a public health worker. These anecdotes are fascinating and add to the appeal of the book as well as to my admiration for Rosling.

There are a few surprises in the book. One is Rosling’s claim (based on hard data), that progress does not depend on democracy. Countries such as South Korea, the home of LG, Samsung, Kia, etc., had enormous growth while it was still a military dictatorship. Only later has it become a well-functioning democracy. Rosling is also ambiguous when it comes to activists. He says that activists do drive changes, often in the right direction. However, he also argues that they are prone to exaggerations. Women’s activists, for example, tend to spread the news about how women suffer, but not about the progress such as the fact that girls today are almost as well educated as boys, globally speaking.

For a book that is relatively short, Rosling has managed to include a great deal of data that I think every person in the world should know. Again, not so that we can pad our shoulder and call it a day, but rather so that we can identify what works and continue to do what works. The book is also an enjoyable read with a good flow and a nice mix of anecdotes and data to back up those anecdotes. I think that Bill Gates did a wise thing when he made this book available to all college graduates in the US, and I hope that all college graduates grasp their opportunity to read this excellent book!

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A must read for everybody

No matter how well informed you are Factfulness is a useful book. It is not only about facts but also about approaching the world with critical thinking even to contradict this book, I am sure Hans would not mind. I think that under all the modern noise, under all the fake news, all the manipulating politicians, a bit of factulness is exactly what the people need.

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Spectacular and humbling

It just completely demolished my world view. I became much more humble, yet strangely optimistic about the world. RIP Mr. Rossling. Your factfullness is here to stay with me.

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Insightful

A must read to combat negatively and ignorance in this beautiful world we live in.

Illuminating and thought-provoking

Opened my eyes about the true state of the world we live in today. Many “really??” moments.

very accessible yet very profound book

I really enjoyed this audiobook. It is a nicely read ultimate guideline about the health/poverty/demographic situation of our human world, and also an ultimate guideline about common sense. It is incredibly accessible for everyone who cares to listen.

Could have been perfect

I think this is a very important book because of the profundity of its messages; the clear way in which they are articulated; and the experience with which the authors back them up. I could further sing the book's praises, but there are many others whose reviews take care of that. I think the most helpful addition would be to point out that some readers may share my frustration at the self-promotional way in which many parts are written. Although the main author very honestly recounts tales of his own mistakes, the book is also peppered with attempts to emphasise the importance of his own actions, achievements, and acquaintances. And they are important! But a little humility goes a long way in spreading a message and I fear the book could have spread its message even further with that in mind. The first - but not the only - example of this is in the title, and the many other terms that the authors have coined and seem to be pushing - irrespective of their usefulness (rather than "factualness" I will stick to "truth" or "facts", thank you). Nevertheless this book is one of the most important I have read - I just wish I could also say it was one of the best. I will be recommending the book to many friends and acquaintances.

Thank you Hans

I loved this book from the very beginning. Hans Rosling inspired my soul some years ago with his TED Talk on statistics - which when I studied I loved!
His humility and gratitude combined wth his deep love of humanity and his curiosity are deeply inspirational.
Ola - thank you for the continued work. I look forward to reading and hearing again and again!!!