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

by Hans Rosling

Slow Change Is Not No Change

solution to all problems is redistribution of resources, which we should always support.

Being always in favor of or always against any particular idea makes you blind to information that doesn’t fit your perspective.

Be curious about new information that doesn’t fit, and information from other fields. And rather than talking only to people who agree with you, or collecting examples that fit your ideas, see people who contradict you, disagree with you, and put forward different ideas as a great resource for understanding the world.

every activist I have ever met, whether deliberately or, more likely, unknowingly, exaggerates the problem to which they have dedicated themselves.

desperately trying to make people care, they forget about progress.

Just as Cuba is the poorest of the healthy because of its commitment to a single idea, the United States is the sickest of the rich.

The challenge is to find the right balance between regulation and freedom.

get a toolbox, not a hammer.

“We cannot live like us.”

It’s a huge diplomatic challenge to prevent the proud and nostalgic nations with a violent track record from attacking others now that they are losing their grip on the world market. We must help the old West to find a new way to integrate itself peacefully into the new world.

We also know the solutions: peace, schooling, universal basic health care, electricity, clean water, toilets, contraceptives, and microcredits to get market forces started.

“How on earth could I be so wrong about that fact? What can I learn from that mistake? Those people are not stupid, so why are they using that solution?” It is quite exciting being curious, because it means you are always discovering something interesting.