Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling

Posted On April 10, 2022

Hi Readers! I read my first nonfiction book of the month. I loved it. Because I am a picky nonfiction reader, I always do more than necessary amount of research before I pick a book. This month it took longer. The finalists of my decision were Atomic Habits or Factfulness. I am so glad I picked Factfulness because I needed to read a book like that in this moment in time. This book is something I never knew I needed to read. This book might not be something you know you need to read. But, believe me, YOU GOT TO READ IT!

~~OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK~~

Factfulness is a book written by Hans Rosling, along with his son Ola Rosling & daughter-in-law Anna Rosling Rönnlund. As the name suggests, everything in this book is based on facts & data from years’ of research. This trio tell us why the world is a lot better than we think. To groove the audience into the book, at the onset itself, there are 13 questions. You have to write down the answers and then check how much you got right. Interesting, right? Well, it is interesting until it becomes embarrassing and then you become curious. The average correct answer is 2 out of 13. To embarrass humankind even further, there is a constant comparison of humans with chimpanzees. Apparently, if you throw bananas with the answer options of A, B, C, then the chimpanzees’ average is 33%, which is higher than 2 out of 13 which is the average from humans. This questionnaire set right at the beginning of the book caught my attention, and then I simply couldn’t stop reading.

Everything we think we know about the world is wrong. If you think you are better than the majority of the world, just go ahead and take the test. Whether you score good or bed, continue to read the book. Us humans have an OVERDRAMATIC WORLDVIEW according to the authors. The things we think are worse are not actually worst right now in the 21^st century. Not only do we have very old facts hardwired in our brains, but we also choose to stick to those 30/40-year-old facts. This is mainly why we have this overdramatic worldview where we always think things are worse. Read on to know how to rewire your brain so that we do not make the same mistakes.

~~TEN INSTINCTS~~

The authors have outlined the ten main instincts to which we stick. These are the gap instinct, the negativity instinct, the straight line instinct, the fear instinct, the size instinct, the generalization instinct, the destiny instinct, the single perspective instinct, the blame instinct & the urgency instinct. I will not go in detail on these because I am sure you are on your way to buy this book already.

All these ten chapters start off with a real incident that the author Hans Rosling went through. Knowing the story first helps us to relate to what exactly each of the instinct is about. After the incident or story, we are taken to the data & facts surrounding how an instinct makes us behave the way it does. Needless to say that the facts are so truly surprising because we always think the worst of things. The data is followed by pictorial representations in charts to help us understand better. And then, there is a summary at the end which tells us how to rewire our brain. If our first instinct is from any of these ten, we need to rethink, get some data and then proceed with our action. Usually I do not like similarity in chapters, but all these ten chapters written in the same structure were brilliant. I really liked that they were so well structured for us.

~~CONCLUSION~~

I scored 4 out of 13 on the test, which is quite low but still higher than the average. I try to keep abreast of the news, but then all the news shared is bad news. Like the authors have rightly written, no one talks about good news which is mainly why we have such a distorted image of the world. The facts in this book should be read & understood by the entire population. This book should be a part of the syllabus in school. It should be mandatory reading for children as well as adults. Especially adults. I have rated Factfulness at 5/5 stars. Please read it!

Until next time,