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Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think


Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
108
Narrator
18
Release Date
April 3, 2018
Duration
8 hours 52 minutes
Summary
For fans of Freakonomics and Thinking, Fast and Slow, here is a book by Hans Rosling, the scientist called 'a true inspiration' by Bill Gates, that teaches us how to see the world as it truly is. Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends-what percentage of the world's population live in poverty; why the world's population is increasing; how many girls finish school-we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective-from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don't know what we don't know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn't mean there aren't real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future.
Reviews
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Kim F.

This was a great book! A little dry because it focused so much on 13 questions; but it quickly went into explanations of why we think and generalized the way we do. It maid me question my judgements of the world view.

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Diane C.

Dry and boring

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ILYA P.

Great book!

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Nathan S.

Overall great book, he himself missing major data points of vaccination and world population and some diseases and why they exists still... but I feel he is genuine and his major point is to be critical of "facts" and "numbers" as many times they are wrong and misplaced. The classic, the news reports on negativity and so the human mind is always on guard watching for bad news it triggers more survival needs to take these "facts" and numbers serious. Well being that facts are still only someones opinion anyway. Good book.

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Anonymous

slow and repetitive

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Harry H.

Brutal monotone narration. Subject matter not much better. How can you lecture and write an entire book about a dozen factoids (that are easily googled, I might add) as if you’ve discovered the Holy Grail? Author full of himself. I could not stay awake after 2 hours of this pain. Wasted $15.

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