35 Fabulous lessons from the book 'Factfulness' by Hans Rosling

Ready to shatter some of your biggest myths about the world? Get ready...

This is a 2018 book by Swedish physician, professor of international health and statistician Hans Rosling. In the book, Rosling suggests that the vast majority of people are wrong about the state of the world. He shatters many myths that we carry about the world around us.

After having read the book page by page, I, hereby, list down 35 fabulous lessons from this awesome book. 
These are the examples that stuck with me. 
I know that I need to keep practicing this learning day in and day out. 
These learning are worded and appended in a way that makes it easier for most of us to understand and absorb.

If you are interested in reading about such learning from other all-time best-selling books, you may click here.

For now, if you wish to know about 'Factfulness', and what I learned from it, here you go...

1/ Most people think that the world today is more frightening, more violent and more hopeless than it really is. In fact, the reality is dramatically opposite. We are living in one of the most peaceful times with better healthcare and technology, and least number of people in dire poverty.

2/ Its not just that the people are ignorant, it is realized that they were possessing actively wrong knowledge.

3/ Illusions do not happen in our eyes. They happen in our brains. So, the misconceptions we carry are not because of what we see but what we believe. 

4/ Our quick thinking brains are craving for drama. These dramatic instincts are causing misconceptions and an overdramatic worldview. The dramatic intake needs to be controlled to get a realistic view of the world. 

5/ There is not even one country in the world where child mortality rate has not come down over the last 30 years - a clear indication that we have improved as a whole to protect the health of young ones. 

6/ While the world has changed for the better, the world view has not kept pace. 

7/ These misconceptions exist because of the fact that human beings have a strong dramatic instinct towards binary thinking, a basic instinct to divide things into two distinct groups, with no gap in between. Humans, love to dichotomize. Good vs bad, heroes vs villains, my country vs the rest, me vs the society, and as in cricket terms, defense vs aggression. The list goes on and on.

8/ Dividing the world into two distinct divides is simple and intuitive, and also dramatic because it implies conflict – and human mind loves drama. We do this without thinking, most of the time.

9/ This gap instinct makes us imagine division where there is actually just a smooth range.

10/ The world is not “developing” vs “developed”. Between these two extremes is a vast range of countries who have moved away from developing and are not yet developed. Majority of the world today lies in this vast range, while “developing” and “developed” are two extremes.

11/ Hans goes on to create 4 levels to give a better picture of the world – Level 1 to Level 4. Level 1 is extreme poverty and Level 4 is a group of rich people. But the sweetest spot is somewhere in between these two levels where more than 85% of the worlds population reside. 

12/ Any simplification of information may also be misleading, and averages are no exception. Averages can mislead by hiding a spread in a single number, especially when we compare two averages. 

13/ In just 20 years, world population living in extreme poverty has dropped from 29% to 9%. 

14/ Back in 1800, life expectancy was roughly 30 years anywhere in the world. That was what it had been throughout history. Don't get confused with averages. This doesn't mean that most people lived only unto 30s. It actually means that half of the deaths happened in the age group 0 to 5, and other half in the group 60 to 70. The average was thus 30. Remember that there is always a spread in averages and understanding the spread is very important. The average life expectancy today is close to 74. We, humans, have always struggled to make our families survive, and finally, we are succeeding. Time to celebrate. 

15/ The misconception that the world is getting worse is very difficult to maintain if we look at the present in a historical context. 

16/ The goal of higher income is not just bigger piles of money. The goal of longer lives is not just extra time. The ultimate goal is to have the freedom to do what we want. Culture, and freedom - The ultimate goals of development, can be hard to measure, but guitars per capita is a good proxy. 
[Recommended Read: From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom]

17/ The world is still bad. There are many serious issues to be tackled, but it's also getting better at the same time. It's bad and better. 

18/ Human mind craves for drama, and media exploits this by sensationalizing bad news. Negative and positive changes are happening simultaneously in the world. Negative changes will find you via media. But for positive changes, you will have to go and find them. 

19/ There is no room for facts when our minds are occupied by fear. 

20/ Sum total of all fearful deaths (natural disasters, plane crashes, murders, nuclear leaks and terrorism) is less than 1% of total deaths happening each year. Still these events get enormous media attention. Not that we don't need to work on these areas, but perhaps a higher focus is needed somewhere else. 

21/ In the deepest poverty, you should never do anything perfectly. If you do, you are stealing resources from where they can be better used. 

22/ The world cannot be understood without numbers, and it cannot be understood with numbers alone. Though we absolutely need numbers to understand the world, we should be highly skeptical about conclusions derived from purely number crunching. 

23/ One number, however big or small it may seem, can never be meaningful unless compared with something meaningful 

24/ Single, standalone numbers are far less meaningful than when they are seen as rates. E.g. no. of child deaths does not give ad clear picture as child deaths per new born.(infant mortality rate). 
[Recommended Read: FOOPS!]

25/ Categorization is natural and important for us to function well. But, unfortunately, it can make us jump to conclusions about the whole category based on just a few, or even one, unusual example. This creates generalizations and stereotypes which are mind blockers for all kind of understanding. 

26/ Majority is also a category. Majority doesn't mean All or Almost all. It could be 51% or 99% - a big difference. Go deep into data to understand the situation better. 

[Recommended Read: FOOPS!]

27/ Cultures, religion, nations and people are not rocks. They change. They transform - constantly. No specific culture or value can be labeled for a specific religion, or group or country since it is ever evolving for all of us. Never dismiss slow change for no change. 

28/ Experts are experts but only in their fields. Outside it, they could be just average or even worse. However, they don't think so. 

29/ Blaming media for misinformation is futile, because they are no better than ordinary population regarding the state of the world and where it is headed. 

30/ In a tragedy, we have an instinct to find someone to blame, and rarely look in the mirror. 

31/ It's usually unfair to credit or discredit one person or situation for a massive result. There are various known and unknown factors involved.
[Recommended Read: A Father's Diary]

32/ Look at the systems, not people, when things go wrong. Look for causes, not villains. Similarly,  in success, look for systems, not heroes. 

33/ Our ability to think analytically takes a back seat when we are under time pressure, are afraid and thinking worst case scenarios. The need to act quickly only results in an even worse situation. That's the urgency instinct for you. Now or never is rarely true. Take your time. When people ask you to act immediately or repent, they are most likely resisting me to think clearly. 
[Recommended Read: Autobiography of A Stock]

34/ When you are called to action, sometimes the most useful action is to improve the data. 

35/ When someone threatens to kill you, don't turn your back and try to run away. Stand still, look into their eyes and ask what the problem is.

Hope these 35 fabulous lessons will help shape up your thought process to some extent and help you manage your life much better.

Don't have time to read the entire book? 
Then, you can read the crux of some of the best-selling books ever written.
If you are interested in reading about such learning from other all-time best-selling books, you may click here.

Regards

Manoj Arora
Official Website