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    Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
    Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
    Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
    Audiobook8 hours

    Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

    Written by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund

    Narrated by Richard Harries

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    For fans of Freakonomics and Thinking, Fast and Slow, here is a book by Hans Rosling, the scientist called "a true inspiration" by Bill Gates, that teaches us how to see the world as it truly is. 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.

    Editor's Note

    The bigger picture…

    Reading Hans Rosling’s “Factfulness” in an era of pandemics, climate change, and manipulated news may be what you need to remind yourself that the world perhaps isn’t as horrific as it seems. Rosling explains how important it is to break from conventional ways of thinking in order to see a more complete picture of the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 3, 2018
    ISBN9781501990717
    Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
    Author

    Hans Rosling

    Hans Rosling was a medical doctor, professor of international health and renowned public educator. He was an adviser to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and co-founded Médecins sans Frontières in Sweden and the Gapminder Foundation. His TED talks have been viewed more than 35 million times, and he was listed as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Hans died in 2017, having devoted the last years of his life to writing Factfulness.

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    Reviews for Factfulness

    4.5/5

    821 ratings47 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      It was good, but the tips and applications felt somewhat general. Unless you have a notebook where you’re writing down key points, I think it’ll be relatively hard to keep track of the 10 recommendations. That said, I found the short anecdotes to be quite exciting, and I felt connected to Hans through the writing. A book worth rereading to keep the main points fresh and to humble yourself if you believe yourself to be an expert. Also, the authors use a 4-level concept as an assumption for essentially everything, but the 4-levels felt arbitrary, and I wasn’t totally bought in.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I found this to be a really interesting and thought provoking book that uses data to show misconceptions about the world. It starts with a quiz, which is a bit annoying because you'll get most of the 10 answers wrong. But so do most people - if you get them right you don't need to read the book. Increasing the narration speed to 1.5X was helpful, at least for me.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Hans Rosling, like Stephen Pinker, would like us to believe in facts. Fair enough. He states as fact that many metrics in our culture have shown fact-based improvements. Some dramatic such as health and mortality. What he misses, like so many of these researchers, is the COST of these improvements which benefit humans, but leave catastrophic damage to our environment - all due to cheap energy, fossil fuels, which enabled the industrial revolution and predatory capitalism.

      It's no accident that while humans have been reproducing at exponential rates, we've simultaneously laid waste to entire ecosystems around the globe. Since this cannot continue - we're an animal species, after all, living on a finite planet - there will be an equally radical reversal of all of the gains we've made due to the discovery and exploitation of fossil fuels as we consume the last of this finite resource. And no, alternative energy cannot and will not take the place of oil. That's not even remotely possible. Speaking of facts, even Google engineers, with access to the latest science and research, have stated that reality.

      Does Rosling really believe that humanity has the wisdom and intelligence to effectively maintain our population, keep our biosphere healthy, while continuing to expand our predatory capitalist economic system requiring infinite growth which is driving catastrophic climate change to accelerate and destabilize the entire planet? Really Hans?!?!?!

      Only one question needs to be asked and I think we all know the answer: Will/can humanity voluntarily successfully transition to a fair, sustainable and ecologically balanced environmental and economic political and social system? Not. A. Chance. THAT'S the one fact people need to know.

      We are, according to even the most conservative scientists, well into the sixth mass extinction. It is the fault of humanity. It is no longer something we can control, much less stop. It's too late. The next 20 years will likely become a hell on earth. People like Hans Rosling simply put people back to sleep instead of addressing the core issue - human supremacy and our absolute dependence on our degrading biosphere. Books like this make me angry because they perpetuate the illusion of technotopia. My children are going to have to live through these horrific times and nothing I can do will prepare them. Our children will curse their ancestors, us, and we'll deserve it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This is an interesting book about global health statistics, but also other concerns such as global warming, and how most people believe that things are worse than they actually are. Human civilization has made great strides in regard to world hunger, literacy, vaccinations, etc. but most people don’t realize it because we tend to focus on the negative, believe generalizations, and listen to media that is more focused on sensationalism. The author includes interesting anecdotes and stories about his travels all over the world as a doctor and educator. I recommend this book to people who want a world view that is grounded in reality rather than fear or hype.
    • 5/5
      One of the best and most important books I’ve ever read.
    • 3/5
      Learned a lot and had some great points, but there's a couple arguments that felt unnecesarily belittling. Like mocking his students for splitting the world into rich and poor, then following that up by splitting the world into just different degrees of rich and poor. Also saying "there's no evil people, so don't feel the need to blame individuals" in this political world.
    • 5/5
      Such a beautiful book :D . . . . .
    • 5/5
      Well written and enlightening. Definitely challenged my worldview and got me to question my thinking.
    • 5/5
      Important book. Need more like this. Some points were too generic/one-size fits all, but overall outstanding. Hans did a lot of good.
    • 4/5
      Great book. Horrible narration. Had to listen at 1.5x speed and there were still constant dramatic pauses.
    • 5/5
      What a book! A fresh look at the world without the preconceived ideas that we usually hear from the mainstream media. Everyone should read it or at least be aware of that we usually are wrong about the world!
    • 5/5
      Excellent book, well worth reading to increase knowledge and
    • 5/5
      one of the best books I have ever read. An exceptionally written and well articulated book, I believe everyone should read this book.
    • 5/5
      One of the most incredible and impactful books I have ever read. I’m so thankful for the work and the journey! I’m going to read and reread this book countless times in the coming decades! Thank you so much!
    • 5/5
      A must read for every citizen of the world. This has truly changed my world view and I'll be promoting this book for the foreseeable future to all my friends and families. It is an irony that in the age of information, we need such a book to understand that information has ulterior intention based on who passes it on. Thank you Hans, Thank you Faithfulness
    • 5/5
      What an amazing book! Full of great life experiences and facts about the world. This is a must read, especially in times like now (May 2020).
    • 3/5
      Wow. This is a great thought-provoking book. No wonder it was on Bill Gate's recommended list. I work with numbers and data analysis every day and reading this has made me want to look even deeper into numbers. About the work too, not just for my work. These authors do a great job at galvanizing you into thinking more deeply about why the world is the way it is and why we react to things the way we do. I will be keeping these facts in mind moving forward. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Very thought provoking read. Great structure and easy reading format.
    • 4/5
      In general, I like the book. There are a few central themes I appreciate: - don't make faulty assumptions based on past data. Don't extrapolate blindly- don't assume your experiences and cultural background apply to all situations- life is not as bad as it seemsI appreciate his insistence on data-based conclusions. There are, however, dangers he ignored while writing this book. The main one is this: we often view data and present it in a manner that supports our pre-conceived ideas. Anyone who has sat through a marketing presentation will attest to this. You will present data in a selective manner. Are things as bad as they seem? In some ways, yes. In some ways, no. It's good to be optimistic, but not blindly so. Conversely, it is inadvisable to be a blind pessimistAlas, he addressed only one of these approaches, and this diminishes the value of the book.
    • 5/5
      This should be required reading in school--multiple tames. Say, seventh grade, junior year of high school, and at least once again in any higher education.

      What I loved best about this book is that it wasn't as 100% optimistic as the subtitle makes it seem. Rosling makes a great comparison of the state of the world with a baby born prematurely: every day, things are better--still not great, but better. It's so rare that I can find people who can appreciate two realities at once.

      And it's not all statistical. This book was clearly a labor of love, and Rosling is open, honest, and very human with his personal examples and disclaimers. It's such a shame that he died before the book was published--I would have loved to hear this remarkable man speak, and maybe even tried to work for him. After all, I'm writing my final paper for my preservation course on preserving digital datasets.
    • 5/5
      I think it would be helpful, especially in the deeply divided US, for everyone to read this book. Rosling shows us how to work off of facts rather than our instincts-or biases.
    • 5/5
      Just get this book. Read it. Then, get someone else to read it too.
    • 4/5
      Jaunty Swedish professor updating us on the encouraging spread of health and prosperity globally, and the stubborn reluctance of people to conform to stereotypes. He’s an affable companion, and genially throws in anecdotes from many years as a medic in “developing” countries. The “Factfulness” questionnaires that Rosling sets up to debunk would seem to include some straw men, but the responses he tabulates here, from assorted international symposia, do suggest the need for a corrective to those still tempted to think of the Third World as a destitute, lawless, unsophisticated periphery. Practical, upbeat, and engaging.
    • 5/5
      This book is a must read for everyone!
    • 5/5
      Great book. The charts are difficult to view on a Kindle Paperwhite.
    • 5/5
      A milestone work, should be required reading and the default starting point for anyone thinking about the future. You can disagree with the implications/conclusions but we have to start from the incontrovertible statistics.
    • 5/5
      It was pure luck and I scored just about 50% in the initial questions.The best takeaway of this book is 'world can be both bad and better'. Knowing that things are a lot better from what it was last year, last decade, last century, will assist us to improve things even more.I've heard this from multiple experts that Statistics is the zenith of Mathematics. This book proves that again. Being able to interpret Statistical results helps us in many domains - how not to fall for the averages, the negativity instinct and the media bias are just a couple of examples that are demonstrated in the book."When you hear about something terrible, calm yourself by asking, if there had been an equally large positive improvement, would I have heard about that?" - a simple statement, but would take years of practice to follow.Each chapter ends with a 'Factfulness...' statement that succinctly tells what the chapter was all about and what we learned from those examples. I would not recommend skipping the chapter and finish the book by just reading those 'Factfulness' statements though.A few years ago, I watched Dr Rosling's TedTalk some time back and I was deeply impressed by his graphs and how he explained them. 'The greater the understanding, the lesser the number of variables used in the explanation.' - the simplicity of the author's language reminded me of this statement while reading most parts of the book.
    • 4/5
      Han Gosling - medical doctor, Professor of International Health and all round superhero - died in 2017, and boy do I wish he was still around in these COVID times. If you've never heard of him before, Rosling was a Swede who started life as a medical doctor, working in many different countries across the world before his experience led him into the world of research. There, he made a name for himself as a renowned public educator, advising WHO and UNICEF. He also co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières in Sweden, spoke at numerous international conferences and become a bit of a TED Talks legend. This career journey led him on a path to becoming a champion about people properly understanding the true facts of global issues, as in his experience no matter how senior or educated the individual, there was a common thread of not working to the right set of facts, or at least interpreting the facts correctly. He co-founded Gapminder with his son and daughter-in-law, which is focused on the elimination of ignorance in the world around issues such as global poverty, climate change and education.Gosling was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer just as he was starting to write this book with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund, so it's truly a swansong of the most important things he'd learnt about misconceptions and ignorance on world issues. Written in a very accessible format (i.e. you don't need to be a maths geek to appreciate it), Rosling shows us how our assumptions and interpretations of information are often wrong, and at the end of every chapter gives life tips on how to interpret facts going forward so that we get the full picture. And it's fascinating stuff. Rosling refers to himself as a possibilist rather than an optimist, and in this book works to demonstrate how much the world has progressed and is actually improving in most areas, despite the doom and gloom outlook that's presented to us in the press. Across 10 chapters he explains 10 different issues that cause us to go with the wrong takeaways from information, such as our urgency instinct and destiny instinct, and explains how world poverty (or wealth) should not be viewed from the perspective of developed world / undeveloped world - or 'them' and 'us' - but rather as 4 different levels of income.Where Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund come in is that they have made a name for themselves creating a different way of visually presenting this type of data, and the book is packed full of their interesting graphics which really do help the data stick in your head than the usual line graphs or bar charts.Spookily, Hans Rosling states towards the end of the book that he believes there are 5 main issues of concern still in the world, and #1 on his list was the risk of a global pandemic, because we'd been there before and it was highly likely. Given Rosling's understanding of the media needing to make their living from reporting depressing rather than optimistic news, I wish he was still around to give us the true facts on COVID-19, as we're all aware of how much inconsistency there is in the data being reported.4 stars - a superbly interesting and thought-provoking read that will stick with me.
    • 5/5
      Great read. Short & always to the point.
      Main takeaways:
      - Look for causes not villains.
      - Be wary of lonely numbers.
      - Always look for trends.
      - The four levels instead of developing/developed.
      - Always question genelerizations.
      - The right here right now, the rushing of desicions.
    • 3/5
      If you need hope or positive feelings about the world and its inhabitants, start here. Positive statistics in many subjects, if you are not up-to-date. The author did come across as a bit egotistical in his knowledge and experience of others' beliefs.