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

by Hans Rosling

The most important thing you can do to avoid misjudging something’s importance is to avoid lonely numbers. Never, ever leave a number all by itself.

Some people feel ashamed when doing this kind of math with human lives. I feel ashamed when not doing

Whether measuring HIV, GDP, mobile phone sales, internet users, or CO2 emissions, a per capita measurement—i.e., a rate per person—will almost always be more meaningful.

Factfulness is … recognizing when a lonely number seems impressive (small or large),

“Hmmm. So your country has become so safe that when you go abroad the world is dangerous for you.”

When visiting reality in other countries, and not just the backpacker cafés, you realize that generalizing from what is normal in your home environment can be useless or even dangerous.

If you are happy to conclude that all chemicals are unsafe on the basis of one unsafe chemical, would you be prepared to conclude that all chemicals are safe on the basis of one safe chemical?

“Well, I saw your numbers and I heard what you said, but I’m afraid there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Africa will make it. I know because I served in Nigeria. It’s their culture, you know. It will not allow them to create a modern society. Ever. EV-ER.”

But today, this instinct to see things as unchanging, this instinct not to update our knowledge, blinds us to the revolutionary transformations in societies happening all around us.

To control the destiny instinct, don’t confuse slow change with no change. Don’t dismiss an annual change—even an annual change of only 1 percent—because it seems too small and slow.

To control the destiny instinct, stay open to new data and be prepared to keep freshening up your knowledge.

“As a finishing remark you said that you hoped your grandchildren would come as tourists to Africa and travel on the new high-speed trains we plan to build. What kind of a vision is that? It is the same old European vision.”

Factfulness is … recognizing that many things (including people, countries, religions, and cultures) appear to be constant just because the change is happening slowly,

Experts are experts only within their field.

A serious problem requires a serious database. I strongly recommend visiting the Red List,

You probably know the saying “give a child a hammer and everything looks like a nail.”

Though we absolutely need numbers to understand the world, we should be highly skeptical about conclusions derived purely from number crunching.

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

educators know that it is often the availability of electricity rather than more textbooks or even more teachers in the classroom that has the most impact on learning, as students can do their homework after sunset.

It’s strange where people end up drawing their lines and how well behaved they feel if they stay inside their boxes.

“We are not the healthiest of the poor, we are the poorest of the healthy.”

Why be pleased with being the healthiest of the poor? Don’t the Cuban people deserve to be as rich, and as free, as those in other healthy states?

No single measure of a good society can drive every other aspect of its development. It’s not either/or. It’s both and it’s case-by-case.

get a toolbox, not a hammer.

To understand most of the world’s significant problems we have to look beyond a guilty individual and to the system.

had been completely ignorant about the innovative power of small businesses. They turned out to be good guys too, with a fantastic ability to find cheaper solutions.

Do not demonize journalists: they have the same mega misconceptions as everyone else.

Nevertheless I want to praise them, so let’s throw a parade for the unsung heroes of global development: institutions and technology.

Brave and patient servants of a functioning society, rarely ever mentioned—but the true saviors of the world.

“Now, Hans, we have loaded the laundry. The machine will do the work. So now we can go to the library.”

Because the problem is that when we identify the bad guy, we are done thinking.

To control the blame instinct, resist finding a scapegoat.

When someone claims to have caused something good, ask whether the outcome might have happened anyway, even if that individual had done nothing. Give the system some credit.

talking. Let’s instead use that energy to solve the problem by taking action: action driven not by fear and urgency but by data and coolheaded analysis.

wasn’t. When a problem seems urgent the first thing to do is not to cry wolf, but to organize the data. To

A long jumper is not allowed to measure her own jumps. A problem-solving organization should not be allowed to decide what data to publish either.

Data must be used to tell the truth, not to call to action, no matter how noble the intentions.

I tell you to ignore the noise, but keep an eye on the big global risks.

And if that woman could be factful under those circumstances, then you, highly educated, literate reader who just read this book, you can do it too.

When we have a fact-based worldview, we can see that the world is not as bad as it seems—and we can see what we have to do to keep making it better.