Shuby Deshpande's Reviews > Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

"Being humble means being aware of how difficult your instincts can make it get the facts right, about being realistic about the extent of your knowledge, about being happy to say "I don't know", and being prepared to change your opinion when faced with new facts." - Hans Rosling
This excerpt from the book nicely captures the essence of its message. At its core, it is about two things: being humble and being curious. Hans is a brilliant writer who weaves through 10 basic instincts we as humans have, his philosophy of factfulness. I found it hilarious that most of us (including domain experts!) on an average score less than chimpanzees (basically random), at most World fact questions.
Rosling explains through a barrage of facts and original plots of how most of us form opinions and biases from knowledge which is outdated by at least several decades.
His fact-based worldview is contagious and utterly convinces the reader that the world is slowly improving (despite what we may see in the media, which is a point he nicely addressed in the book). Though I've watched talks, and visited Dollar Street before, this was my first deep exposure to this topic. I hope to follow up with Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now soon.