Review: Factfulness

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About The World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling. Hans was a Swedish physician, author, public speaker and sword swallower. He spent decades in studying and treating diseases in many rural places of Africa and worked as an adviser to many aid agencies including WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, etc. Hans died while finishing this book in 2017. Data came to sing at Hans’ hands in this book. This book has changed my worldview. Data and evidences presented in this book show that the world is indeed improving in all fronts. This doesn’t mean there aren’t any problems. We have problems and the world is getting better at the same time. Hans shows it’s nonsense to label countries as developed and developing  rather countries should be divided based on income levels from one to four. Level one being the poorest and unhealthy and the level four is the richest and healthiest. The bubble chart presented in the book shows that the majority of the countries are in between the level one and four and every country is gradually moving towards level four.  Majority of the people in the world are neither too rich nor too poor. The world has made huge improvement in education, primary healthcare, child mortality, and disease prevention over the past decades. And yet, we seldom get frustrated thinking that this world has no future and everything is getting worse. Hans shows we have ten instincts that feed into this kind of wrong worldview which get enhanced by mass media. Media exploits our fear instinct and prioritizes bad news over good because bad news bring them more cash, a similar technique is also used by politicians to earn our vote. Hans suggested in developing a fact-based worldview and control the ten instincts he mentioned in the book that feed our overdramatic worldview to see the world as it actually is. This book should be read by anyone who wants to get rid of their ignorance and see the real picture. Hans together with his colleagues founded Gapminder.org which shows how every country has been progressing since 1800 and it’s worth to check it out.