“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 keep freshening up your knowledge.”
I deeply appreciated being taught that there is no binary between "developed" and "developing" countries - rather a continuum from Level 1 to Level 4, each with its own set of challenges. It took the World Bank 17 years and 14 of Rosling's talks to stop espousing this false binary, so maybe it's not so shameful that it took me 45 years to stop doing it myself.
Each chapter has a textbook-like ending with tips and tricks to deal with each of these biases. “Tips and tricks” is far too pat a way to describe the often simple, elegant, and profound advice he proffers. For example, his phrase “bad and better” is about being able to hold two conflicting ideas in your head: that the world is bad and that it’s getting better. So one could both acknowledge very dire problems as well as the progress and solutions that have happened and are to come. This is not to minimize the issues, but to understand how the world actually works in order to really change it. The benefits to this approach are: 1) be able to see the world or a particular problem more accurately and complexly, 2) devise and/or maintain effective multi-player multi-pronged solutions, and 3) act from a position of knowledge and power and hope rather than one of despair and stress.
That last bit alone was validation enough for me. We live in a time that feels overwhelming and hopeless at times, and it was an enormous relief to be able to acknowledge our very real accomplishments and progress, as well as the proposition that some of what we’re doing is working - perhaps too slowly for our liking, but it’s working.
For example, we’ve achieved enormous success in increasing child survival and almost all of it has been achieved through “preventive measures outside hospitals by local nurses, midwives, and well-educated parents. Especially mothers: the data shows that half the increase in child survival in the world happens because the mothers can read and write.”
That last underpins Rosling’s oft-repeated mantra of education and contraceptives as part of the solution to eradicate poverty, curb population growth, and give people better lives. He calls eradicating extreme poverty a moral imperative and I can’t think of much better goals.
“We should be teaching our children humility and curiosity.”
Another example of progress referred to our disaster prevention measures and other modern indicators and technologies. Because of these, the number of deaths from acts of nature is now just 25% of what it was 100 years ago. Keep in mind that during that same time, our population increased by 5 billion people, so the drop in deaths per capita is even more astonishing: just 6% of what it was 100 years ago.
Bangladesh comes up several times in the book, and not as a basket case as is often the case in the news, but as an example of inspirational progress. For example, after far too many devastating floods and cyclones and ensuing famines, the Bangladeshi government installed a country-wide digital surveillance system connected to a freely available flood-monitoring website. Just 15 years ago, no country in the world had such an advanced system. It has also improved its economic position drastically, going from a level 1 country (one marked by extreme poverty) to level 2 in just 4 decades.
“Insist on a full range of scenarios.”
I found myself giving the most pushback in the chapter that tackled environmental concerns, which Rosling readily acknowledges at the outset of the chapter as one of the most pressing issues humans face. Ok, so the total wild populations of tigers, giant pandas, and black rhinos have all increased over the past years. Is that a reason to rest on our laurels? Not that Rosling counsels any resting - on the contrary, his life is testament to an almost maniacal commitment to help the world’s young and poor and helpless. But I kept thinking: everything is horrible and our wildlife and seas are dying - we have to do something drastic now! Ironically, this was also the chapter about the urgency instinct, and how the now-or-never/either-or way of thinking is probably the wrong approach. Touché, Dr. Rosling.
I took almost 9 pages of notes while reading Factfulness, and it almost felt like taking a (great) course. I wish I had had the chance to see Rosling talk in person but there are apparently dozens of TEDtalks and other lectures he’s given, online (sadly, he passed away just before the book came out). And I’m glad the waiting list at the library was so long that I ended up buying the book, because it’s one I will reread and quote and learn from for a long time to come.
Factfulness was a breeze to read, written in a highly engaging style, and chockfull of personal anecdotes, statistical details, and global trends. I hope everyone reads it and feels charged and ready to continue changing the world for the better.
“Welcome complexity. Combine ideas. Compromise.”
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Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
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A must read in this era of "fake news"
This is a must read! It demonstrates forcefully the importance of making opinion based upon verifiable facts. In addition, it reminds us forcefully how behind our assumed knowledge is in relationship to the actual facts. We are almost always behind and yet in this electric age can make assumptions and decisions that have no basis to reality. The book has a difficult surprise ending which I will not spoil for you. It is my most important read for me in the past 12 months. I love to read and read about 40 books a year. The world and especially North America needs actions based in facts and reflections based upon reality not in supposition and uninformed blind faith!
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- Giles ScottReviewed in South Africa on April 14, 2025
Brilliant content, poorly presented
- G.J.DorenbosReviewed in the Netherlands on July 26, 2018
Simply the best book I have read in years.
