Reviews

I numeri non mentono. Brevi storie per capire il mondo by Vaclav Smil

mike_brough's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

71 short articles showing how the world is made up of numbers and how those numbers need to be interpreted.

homs_dream's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

الذي حفزني لقراءة الكتاب رؤيته ضمن توصيات "بيل غيتس" اطلعت على الكتاب وقرأته في أيام قليلة، فكرته طريفة وذكية.
الأرقام لا تكذب، قد تكون كليشهة مبتذلة لكنها حقيقة نغفل عنها، في العرض يقدّم لك المؤلف شيئاً آخر غير الأرقام، ألا وهو "سياق الأرقام" ويعني التاريخ الفعلي لما وراء الأرقام وما دلالتها.
يمكنني أن أخبرك ببساطة أن عدد سكان الأرض قبل 100 عام كانوا 4 مليار والآن هم 7 ونيّف لكن ماذا تستفيد من هذه المعلومة؟
هنا يأتي دور السياق لهذه الأرقام وكيف تستفيد منها بمعزل عن ورودها في برنامج للمقارنة.
الكتاب موزّع على فصول، وكل فصل منها يعالج قضية معينة من خلال دمج التاريخ بالمستقبل بدءاً بالكتابة والسيارات والغاز ووسائل النقل والإنترنت ومواد الطاقة وصولاً إلى الفضاء.
أجمل ما في الكتاب بساطة لغته وسهولتها وأن كل فصل فيه لا يتجاوز ال5 صفحات، وهذا أدعى للتركيز والتأمل والوصول للفكرة مباشرة دون حشو.

maddieblunier's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

lolashi's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.75

alykat_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This was an interesting surface level breakdown of some statistics, which I love. There were a lot of topics covered in this, many of which I am very interested in looking more at in depth. The topics were all over in range - from the pyramids in Egypt to cows to wars to cars to pandemics. This isn't a book to get detailed info about any of these topics, but a nice surface level skim of various statistics. The short summary of each does leave a little to be desired, and can result in a manipulation of some of the statistics he provides, without the detailed information of how those numbers were obtained and how they are being applied. I listened to this and did not have access to the PDF that was referenced constantly, which may provide more of this information and/or a little more clarity on some of that.

rhyslindmark's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Like Rosling's Factfulness, but worse.

If you want Smil's best work, check out Energy & Civilization. If you want something simple like a 71-point BuzzFeed quiz, look to a different author.

daniellesalwaysreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

The numbers do seem to lie when lots of stuff is ignored.

moorelaborate's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Light read that covers a broad array of topics that the author has interest or knowledge about. Since the takes are short, they can't be exhaustive, but they are still informative and mostly fun. Occasionally feels like a blog, in that the author opines or editorializes which can be either good or bad depending, but I would have rather something more dry weirdly enough.

niketsheth's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Each chapter is like a small crash course on a particular topic. Sometimes the topic feel rushed but in the end it's a good way to start thinking in similar terms. Some of the chapters like electric cars, America's economy were an eye opener and gave a new perspective to my way of seeing things.

clmccart's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

despite a terrible title (evidenced by the fact that Smil felt the need to dedicate the entire epilogue to walking it back), this book was full of fun tidbits. devoid of any real context, i wouldn’t find anything in this book compelling enough to form opinions around but it gave a lot of interesting perspectives.