Author: Hans Rosling
Date read: 2021-06-27
Factfulness gives you the ability to see the world in a less distorted manner. It gives you undeniable facts that are not as entertaining as media's narratives, but true realities. Because of the the instincts that we have inherited from our evolutionary background, we might decide and act carelessly hence Factfulness may help us to come over this flaw.
The book starts with drawing a more accurate image of the world, where there is no longer "west"and "rest", rather four levels which are categorized based on their income. From level 1 which is extreme poverty to level 4 which houses prosperous people. It argues that the behavior of the people around the world is not based on where they live—west or rest—, but how much they earn. If we want to judge status of country, we should take a look at the income level of the majority of its citizens.
"Always looking at the trend, not at a certain number" is the next interesting point that the writer argues. For instance 4.2 million babies have died last year, which is undoubtedly horrible. Well, does this mean that the world we are living is regressing? No, because the trend suggests that each year the number of dead babies is reducing, which is of course a good news and shows that the framework that we have are working.
Differentiating between "getting better" but "still bad" was the point that I specially liked about perception of the author toward the world. The world is not a good place according to the author but it's getting better. This analogy helped to understand the point: "as a new-born baby has desperate physical situation to live and needs many different devices to stay alive. After a few weeks a couple of devices can be unplugged as the baby no longer needs them. Baby's situation is getting better, but still drastic."
Hans Rosling believes that we shouldn't try the see the world through media, not because they're evil, but because a) they're mostly ignorant about facts of the world and b) they need entertaining narratives to amuse their audience, which don't necessarily comply with the facts and realities in the world.
I have generally a more positive view toward the world after reading this book. I agree with the author that the people around the world are getting gradually more prosperous—in average of course, not necessarily in every country—, but this does not guarantee happier humans and societies. To be more precise, the depression around the world is continuously increasing and it would be not easy to declare that the world is getting better. Maybe "the world is getting more prosperous" would be a more accurate statement.
Rating: 5/5