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

by Hans Rosling

Why Don’t We Beat the Chimpanzees? How can so many people be so wrong about so much?

This is because illusions don’t happen in our eyes, they happen in our brains.

Our brains often jump to swift conclusions without much thinking, which used to help us to avoid immediate dangers. We are interested in gossip and dramatic stories, which used to be the only source of news and useful information. We crave sugar and fat, which used to be life-saving sources of energy when food was scarce. We have many instincts that used to be useful thousands of years ago, but we live in a very different world now.

To summarize: low-income countries are much more developed than most people think. And vastly fewer people live in them. The idea of a divided world with a majority stuck in misery and deprivation is an illusion. A complete misconception. Simply wrong.

activists and lobbyists skillfully manage to make every dip in a trend appear to be the end of the world,

The world cannot be understood without numbers. And it cannot be understood with numbers alone.

the data shows that half the increase in child survival in the world happens because the mothers can read and write. More children now survive because they don’t get ill in the first place.

So if you are investing money to improve health on Level 1 or 2, you should put it into primary schools, nurse education, and vaccinations. Big impressive-looking hospitals can wait.

80/20. Have you been given a long list? Look for the few largest items and deal with those first. They are quite likely more important than all the others put together.

The world cannot be understood without numbers. But the world cannot be understood with numbers alone.

“It’s the shareholders who want this company to spend their money on researching rich people’s illnesses. That’s how they get a good return on their shares.”