Factfulness

Ten reasons we're wrong about the world and why things are better than you think
Hans Rosling, with Ola and Anna
Sceptre, 2018

Introduction

Test yourself

p. 4
9. How many of the world's 1-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease
  • A. 20 percent
  • B. 50 percent
  • C. 80 percent
p. 5
Here are the correct answers: [...] 9: C [..]

Appendix: How did your country do?

p. 272

Chapter One. The Gap Instinct

Chapter Two. The Negativity Instinct

Getting out of the Ditch

The Mega Misconception That "The World Is Getting Worse"

Statistics As Therapy

Extreme Poverty

Life Expectancy

I Was Born in Egypt

p. 59
But today people in Afghanistan and other countries on Level 1 live much longer lives than Swedes did back in 1863. This is because basic modernizations have reached most people and improved their lives drastically. They have plastic bags to store and transport food. They have plastic buckets to carry water and soap to kill germs. Most of their children are vaccinated. On average they live 30 years longer than Swedes did in 1800, when Sweden was on Level 1.

32 More Improvements

The Negativity Instinct

Warning: Objects in Your Memories Were Worse Than They Appear

Selective Reporting

Feeling, Not Thinking

How to Control the Negativity Instinct

Bad and Better

Expect Bad News

Don't Censor History

I Would Like to Thank...Society

Chapter Three. The Straight Line Instinct

The Most Frightening Graph I Ever Saw

The Mega Misconception That "The World Population Is Just Increasing and Increasing"

The Straight Line Instinct

The Shape of the Population Curve

Why Is the Population Increasing?

Why Will the Population Stop Increasing?

Future world population by age group

Age7891011
      X
75 X X XXXXX
60 X XXXXXXX
45 XXXXXXXXX
30XXXXXXXXXX
15XXXXXXXXXX
Year20152030204520602075
On the left, the chart shows the ages of the 7 billion people alive in 2015: 2 billion were aged 0 to 15, 2 billion aged 15 to 30, and then there were 1 billion each in the 30 to 45, 45 to 60, and 60 to 75 age groups.
In 2030, there will be 2 billion new 0- to 15-year-olds. Everyone else will have grown older. [...] So, without any increase in the number of children being born, and without people living for longer, there will be 1 billion more adults.
The billion new adults come not from new children, but from children and young adults who have already been born.

In Balance With Nature

p. 88
There was a balance. It wasn't because humans lived in balance with nature. Humans died in balance with nature.

Wait. "They" Still Have Many Children

Why More Survivors Lead to Fewer People

Two Public Health Miracles
p. 92
In Egypt in 1960, 30 percent of all children died before their fifth birthday. The Nile delta was a misery for children, with all sorts of dangerous diseases and malnutrition. Then a miracle happened. The Egyptians built the Aswan Dam, they wired electricity in people's homes, improved education, built up primary health care, eradicated malaria, and made drinking water safe. Today, Egypt's child mortality rate, at 2.3 percent, is lower than it was in France or the United Kingdom in 1960.

How to Control the Straight Line Instinct, or Not All Lines Are Straight

Straight Lines

S-Bends

Slides

Humps

Doubling Lines

How Much of the Curve Do You See?

Chapter Four. The Fear Instinct

Contamination

p. 117
[...] ask yourself: “What kind of evidence would convince me to change my mind?” If the answer is “No evidence could ever change my mind about vaccination”, then you are putting yourself outside evidence-based rationality, outside the very critical thinking that first brought you to this point.

Chapter Five. The Size Instinct

The Deaths I Do Not See

The Size Instinct

How To Control the Size Instinct

Tuberculosis and Swine Flu

p. 134
Each swine flu death received 82,000 times more attention than each equally tragic death from TB.

The 80/20 Rule

Divide the Numbers

Chapter Six. The Generalization Instinct

Chapter Seven. The Destiny Instinct

Snowballs in Hell

The Destiny Instinct

How the Rocks Move

Africa Can Catch Up

Babies and Religions

p. 176
Today, Muslim women have on average 3.1 children. Christian women have 2.7. There is no major difference betwen the birth rates of the world great religions.

Everyone's Talking About Sex

How to Control the Destiny Instinct

Slow Change is Not No Change

Be Prepared to Update Your Knowledge

Talk to Grandpa

Collect Examples of Cultural Change

I Don't Have Any Vision

Chapter Eight. The Single Perspective Instinct

Who Can We Trust?

The Single Perspective Instinct

The Professionals: Experts and Activists

Hammers and Nails

Numbers Are Not the Single Solution
Medicine Is Not the Single Solution

The Ideologues

Cuba: the Healthiest of the Poor

The United States: the Sickest of the Rich

Even Democracy Is Not the Single Solution
p. 201
People [...] are often tempted to argue that democracy leads to, or is even a requirement for, other good things, like peace, social progress, health improvements, and economic growth. But here's the thing, and it is hard to accept: the evidence does not support this stance.

Chapter Nine. The Blame Instinct

Chapter Ten. The Urgency Instinct

Road Blocks and Mental Blocks

The Urgency Instinct

Learn to Control the Urgency Instinct. Special Offer! Today Only!

The Five Global Risks We Should Worry About

p. 237
The five that concern me most are the risks of global pandemic, financial collapse, world war, climate change, and extreme poverty.

Global Pandemic

p. 238
Serious experts on infectious diseases agree that a new nasty kind of flu is still the most dangerous threat to global health.

Alan Smith's TEDx talk, Tim Berners-Lee's 2009 TED talk, gapminder,
Essays
Marc Girod
Mon Jun 10 19:06:08 2019