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A review by co_sima
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
challenging
informative
3.0
I have so many thoughts on this book and unfortunately for the most part I didn't love it.
What I did enjoy and find helpful was the explanation of why people tend to perceive the world and its future in a more pessimistic way than necessary together with some actual advice how you could challenge these behaviors in yourself.
However, overall the book did feel incredibly surface-level on many of the topics it discussed often introducing new issues and aspects only to discard and never mention them again after about one or two paragraphs.
I also felt like at times the book didn't take its own advice on how to evaluate numbers and facts. For example, it was explained that just going by averages is oftentimes misleading while the author then tried to convince you that it's unreasonable to be afraid of getting murdered because the average possibility of that happening is low completely disregard how wildly these numbers vary regarding a multitude of factors.
Especially the discussion of climate change in this book felt lackluster. The book gives you a little multiple choice question at the beginning of each chapter and later reveals that most people tend to pick the worst of the options which usually is incorrect, proving that people base their opinions on lackluster or incorrect information. However, when the majority once again picked the worst option for the climate change question, the author interprets this as people being aware and concerned about the climate crisis completely disregarding his previous reasoning for the very pessimistic replies. I think even if people know the planet is heating up that does not offer us any information on how serious they take the climate crisis and Concluding that while the climate crisis is real we don't need to worry that much because people know it's happening feels not possibilist but incredibly optimistic and naive.
Similarly, like many other reviews have pointed out, his question about endangered species does not paint an accurate picture as these three species might no longer be endangered but many others are and countless more will be in the coming years if nothing changes. The loss of species is very real and this question paired with a lack of further exploration of the topic paints a glorified and misleading picture.
I also think that as this book isn't necessarily written for an audience that spends a lot of time reading up about the addressed topics, it is dangerously close of conveying a message of "everything is fine" when, even though many things have been and still are improving, this only happens because people work hard on those improvements. The takeaway from this book shouldn't be "don't worry be happy" and instead like the author himself says "the world isn't as bad as it seems [...] and we can see what we have to do to make it better." I think this message of action falls significantly short throughout the book.
Overall, the premise is great and there is some sound advice in this book but it contains many inconsistencies and I am not certain that it conveys the very valuable lesson the author wanted to convey instead of a misplaced feeling of optimism.
What I did enjoy and find helpful was the explanation of why people tend to perceive the world and its future in a more pessimistic way than necessary together with some actual advice how you could challenge these behaviors in yourself.
However, overall the book did feel incredibly surface-level on many of the topics it discussed often introducing new issues and aspects only to discard and never mention them again after about one or two paragraphs.
I also felt like at times the book didn't take its own advice on how to evaluate numbers and facts. For example, it was explained that just going by averages is oftentimes misleading while the author then tried to convince you that it's unreasonable to be afraid of getting murdered because the average possibility of that happening is low completely disregard how wildly these numbers vary regarding a multitude of factors.
Especially the discussion of climate change in this book felt lackluster. The book gives you a little multiple choice question at the beginning of each chapter and later reveals that most people tend to pick the worst of the options which usually is incorrect, proving that people base their opinions on lackluster or incorrect information. However, when the majority once again picked the worst option for the climate change question, the author interprets this as people being aware and concerned about the climate crisis completely disregarding his previous reasoning for the very pessimistic replies. I think even if people know the planet is heating up that does not offer us any information on how serious they take the climate crisis and Concluding that while the climate crisis is real we don't need to worry that much because people know it's happening feels not possibilist but incredibly optimistic and naive.
Similarly, like many other reviews have pointed out, his question about endangered species does not paint an accurate picture as these three species might no longer be endangered but many others are and countless more will be in the coming years if nothing changes. The loss of species is very real and this question paired with a lack of further exploration of the topic paints a glorified and misleading picture.
I also think that as this book isn't necessarily written for an audience that spends a lot of time reading up about the addressed topics, it is dangerously close of conveying a message of "everything is fine" when, even though many things have been and still are improving, this only happens because people work hard on those improvements. The takeaway from this book shouldn't be "don't worry be happy" and instead like the author himself says "the world isn't as bad as it seems [...] and we can see what we have to do to make it better." I think this message of action falls significantly short throughout the book.
Overall, the premise is great and there is some sound advice in this book but it contains many inconsistencies and I am not certain that it conveys the very valuable lesson the author wanted to convey instead of a misplaced feeling of optimism.