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

This book paints a whole new picture of the developing countries of the world, and it is a very hopeful picture. I read this book as part of a discussion group. There was plenty to discuss in it. It is a really good book to read.

This is a very helpful book to get the misdirected hysteria and hyperbole our of our daily discourse. Quite humbling to read this book and realize how many things you think you know are wrong. makes you wonder how many others things we are all wrong about.

Fantastic, thought provoking book. Inspiring to see so much improvement in poverty world wide. I think it’s also incredibly valuable to look at trends and rates of improvement everywhere. It’s certainly transformed the way I think about politics.

I’ve been singing he praises of this book since I finished it a few weeks ago. It’s a pleasure to read yet packed with compelling (generally) stats. This should give every reader encouragement that engaging in global progress pays off.

This is the best book for anyone wanting accurate information not just what someone believes is true. It makes you think. Should be required reading for all HS and College students. Also watch him on TED talks.

Agreeing with Bill Gates, this is an eye opening book. You will see how a quiet and gentle evolution is taking place and we are all on a upward climb to a better life. Some nations are lucky and are ahead of the curve, but others wont be left behind. The problem is our shot-term thinking horizon and inability to place bad news events into a holistic understanding of human societies and how they develop. We see only what the media makes available to us, that is eye-catching pieces of disasters. What we do not see is cataclysmic but glacially slow-moving changes that are making all our lives better. Everywhere. Diseases are bring conquered, quality of nearly all important aspects of our life are getting better. To quell your anxiety about future of our children, to develop a more hopeful outlook, to understand that all large-scale misfortunes are temporary read this book.

I would recommend reading the last chapter first (called 'Outro') before reading from the beginning. Makes one realise the precious gift he left us.
The book itself is simple in its message but like all such messages leaves a profound impact in that it changes how one thinks about the world

Excellent book to not only learn more about the world (with data), but to learn how to avoid misleading information and think critically as we consume mass amounts of inputs everyday.

Very quick and enjoyable to read. The author shares ideas that could be dry in a very enjoyable story telling fashion.

The point Rosling makes on how skewed our worldview is when it comes to the progress humanity made and the future outlook is eye opening. The unconscious biases we have and how to combat them are principles to live by.
The language used in the book is simple but concepts outlined are profound and thoughtful. A compelling read.

I took Bill Gates' advice and loved reading this book.
The statistics changed a number of my preconceived notions.
The visualization tools at gapminder.org are a great complement when reading the text.

Lacked focus. Pointed out errors such as generalizations and then used them to describe health care in the US as failing because the "wealthy" were using too many resources for imaginary health care issues. Subscribes to the ideal that "good intentions" can replace a "sound philosophical foundation" for meeting the challenges of our world.

Read Factfullness by Hans Rosling after seeing Bills Gates review. Has to be one of the most informative books I have read since the World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It is very thought provoking and will challenge your views about the human condition today. Surprisingly, not in tow with today's news media or political thinking either. I highly recommend.

“Step-by-step, year-by-year, the world is improving. Not on every single measure every single year, but as a rule. Though the world faces huge challenges, we have made tremendous progress. This is the fact-based worldview.” So said the author, Professor Hans Rosling, a Swedish physician, academic, and statistician.
Ask anyone – and l mean that literally - whether the world is more frightening, more violent, and more hopeless, than it has been, and most people will answer in the affirmative. Rosling formulated 12 questions with 3 multiple choice answers covering the world’s growing poverty, lack of education, preventive health, lack of freedom, violence and more, and confirmed that most people are convinced that “things are getting worse.” He asked these questions of teachers, medical students, the general public and delegates at the World Economic Conference in Davos.
Through pure luck, a monkey would score 33% on the three-answer questions correctly. The humans answering the test scored 17% correctly. The facts are that, yes, the world is making progress on every measure. This is not an impression of the starry-eyed: it is based on solid evidence. (See the book ‘Progress’ by Johan Norberg reviewed in this column, or watch the Ted Talk by Steven Pinker: Is the world getting better or worse?)
“Only actively wrong “knowledge” can make us score so badly,” Rosling wrote. The problem is that policy makers and politicians cannot solve global problems if they are operating on the wrong facts; neither can business people run effective businesses.
The question Hosling answers in the book is not whether the world is getting better - that is an established fact - but rather why the pessimistic worldview is so persistent. He identifies 10 psychological and social instincts that cause this misperception.
Our brains are the product of millions of years of evolution, and have been hard-wired with instincts that helped our ancestors to survive in small groups of hunters and gatherers. We often jump to conclusions without much thinking. Our quick-thinking brains and cravings for drama cause misconceptions and an overdramatic worldview.
The first of our ten instincts is to dichotomize. Good versus bad. Heroes versus villains. The poor and the rich, the developed and undeveloped countries. Dividing things into two boxes is misleading and presumes there is a gap between countries. Consider how you like your bath water? Ice cold or steaming hot? There are many options in between.
This instinct completely distorts all the global proportions in people’s minds.
Facts show levels of income, tourism, democracy, access to education, health care, or electricity, all tell the same story: the world used to be divided into two but is not any longer. Today, most people, 75%, live in middle-income countries. Only 9 percent of the world live in low-income countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, or Central African Republic, which are the worst places on earth to live.
Most people have enough to eat, most people have access to improved water, most children are vaccinated, and most girls finish primary school. When you combine middle- and high-income countries, they constitute 91% percent of humanity.
The instinct towards extremes can easily have us forget that there are 5 billion potential consumers out there, who want to consume shampoo, motorcycles, menstrual pads, and smartphones.
Another instinct is that of negativity. “Things are getting worse. It is easy to be aware of all the bad things happening in the world. It’s harder to know about the good things: billions of improvements that are never reported.
In 1800, roughly 85% of humanity lived in extreme poverty. All over the world, people simply did not have enough food. When the harvest failed, you, your relatives, friends, and neighbors starved to death. In 1997, 42 percent of the population of both India and China were living in extreme poverty. By 2017, that dropped to 12% in India and a stunning 0.7% in China.
Our negativity instinct is to notice the bad more than the good. So how does one control this?
The answer is not to balance out all the negative news with more positive news. That is as helpful as balancing too much sugar with too much salt. Rather it is to recognize that things can be bad and better at the same time. The reporting on family violence on TV is bad, but that this crime gets national airtime means thing are improving. Improvement does not mean we should relax and not worry.
A third instinct is to think in terms of the “straight line” graph. A mega-misconception that is fueled by this instinct is the false idea that the world population is just increasing.
The straight-line intuition is not always a reliable guide in modern life. A baby grows to 67cm in the first 6 months. At this rate the child will be over 6 meters by her 10th birthday.
Assuming the population trend will continue along a straight line is wrong. The number of children will stop increasing as women rise out of extreme poverty and children are no longer needed on the small family farm.
This is a book about the world and how it really is. Our natural instincts mislead us. Only data can correct that. “Factfulness, can and should become part of your daily life.” `
Readability Light --+-- Serious
Insights High +---- Low
Practical High ---+- Low

*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of the recently released The Executive Update.

We all (myself included) think we know a lot about the world, and all us from armchair diplomats to Nobel Laureates fare no better at basic socioeconomic questions than a chimp hitting buttons on the food dispenser.

Fix that. Read this.

Very different view of the world based on facts, not opinion. This gives a very different view from any activist. Heartily recommend this book to all activists. Should bring some reality to their thinking. This book makes them sound like the boy crying fire in the theater.
Would be great if all politicians read the book and too it to heart.

This rating applies only to the Kindle edition. One of the most interesting things about this book are the graphics that the authors use. However, on the kindle the graphics are extremely small and unintelligible. I quit reading it because the experience was so unsatisfactory. I wish I had realized this would be a problem, because by the time I started reading it on my kindle it was too late to return. I finally bought the print edition and it is a far superior reading experience.

In a world where people want everything simply black and white Hans Rosling helps to remind us that life has too much nuance to seek truth in simple binary terms. He speaks from a worldview that is educated, traveled and experienced. I thought it a joy to read some truely original thinking.

What an informative and intellectually delightful book this is. It should be required reading in schools around the world. A rare example of how critical thinking and reflection on life's observations can make everyone a better wold citizen.

Liked everything, well presented, 25% references, excellent.
Little unprofessional when compared to Steven Pinker's work.
Quite eye opening.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Essential reading.
Read it for my own edification and growth.

Finally s book with a realistic and optimistic view on the most important issues of our time. All based on facts and personal experience of a wonderful author. A must read for everybody who is interested in our future.

Simply put: This is one of the most transcendental and significant books i've ever read. It should be an obligatory read at all education levels. An extraordinary and lasting legacy on Mr. Rosling's lifelong pursuit of the definitve truth and World's accurate picture. On top of it all it is as entertaining as it ia extremely well written.

This book is great though I think some ideas keep repeating throughout the chapters. It explains why we took some ideas as facts and stick to them till date. You shall question every fact you greow up believing in after reading this book. Pretty much recommended.

Factfulness is a must read if you have read "Thinking Fast and Slow". As it explains heuristics we use with strong, relevant, and engaging examples about the world we live in.
If you have not read the above-mentioned book, I would recommend reading that first to get a good understanding of the theoretical concepts behind 10 instincts Hans Rosling is talking about.

Really, this author almost does handsprings of joy at demonstrating how ignorant you are if you don't know that in, say, Guana, more people eat yellow squash than green squash. He has you take this brief test of extremely exoteric facts that only someone who does what he does for a living would know, then he lambasts you for being a moron. I did okay on his dumb test (faint praise because almost everybody flunks it), but I found myself resenting his unbridled JOY that everybody is soooooo ignorant of things he considers important. It got very tiresome and I have to admit I abandoned it after, probably, reading only 20 percent of it. Maybe it got better. One can hope. Hey, Mr. Author, I can discuss the seven levels of ambiguity in the poetry of John Donne, which I'm sure YOU can't, but do I rejoice in your ignorance of my esoterica? Okay, so things are improving in impoverished areas of the world, but look around where your readers live: Things are going to hell in a handcart. So "things" aren't getting better for us.

I find it rather interesting how some of the most basic logical mistakes we make ends us with all the wrong impressions and horrible decisions. This book really provided me with simple stories on facts and how I should process facts and data correctly.

A well written book which provides the reader with the opportunity to pursue a new way of looking at the world. The 'factfulness' approach is well explained with engaging stories and clear graphs. If anything this book serves to provide the reader with a positive world view and the opportunity to find the whole truth as the world changes in the future. The reader is given the tools to apply this fact based approach to their own life too.

It showed just how wrong my thinking was about the world. But not only mine!!! I totally agree that this kind of critical thinking should be taught to all the children of the world, and regularly update all the adults. Perhaps we can create an epidemic of a factfullness way of life. What a world we could have then!

A well written book which provides the reader with the opportunity to pursue a new way of looking at the world. The 'factfulness' approach is well explained with engaging stories and clear graphs. If anything this book serves to provide the reader with a positive world view and the opportunity to find the whole truth as the world changes in the future. The reader is given the tools to apply this fact based approach to their own life too.

A had no pre-conceived notions about the book. Read it because it was on Bill Gates' book list. It was eye opening (and I'm an American who hasn't lived in America for 20 years). Statistics and numbers don't lie. Highly recommend especially if your not well traveled.

It showed just how wrong my thinking was about the world. But not only mine!!! I totally agree that this kind of critical thinking should be taught to all the children of the world, and regularly update all the adults. Perhaps we can create an epidemic of a factfullness way of life. What a world we could have then!

I loved this book and hope everyone who desires to make real change in their communities reads this work. The trio who created this work should all get statues as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Then when people come to visit the statues, they can experience the power of fact fullness.