A lovely day

When things start to look a bit gloomy - reading the news too often, autumn coming, running out of Cheerios - it is always good to have a good book to pick up (which can pick you up in return). Who would have thought that a book as data-driven and dry-sounding as Factfulness by Hans Rosling could be one of those?

To be honest, I never thought it would be dry, and I don't think you think that either. Reading the blurb is enough.

Hans Rosling was the king of TED, in a way. Most of us common people will have heard of him through that channel. But in reality, he was a professor of international health, a renowned educator and one of the founders of Gapminder, a project that helps unveil "the beauty of statistics for a fact-based world view". (It's definitely worth playing around with this.) Also a sword swallower. And many, many other things. A fascinating life and many years of research back up this book, published just after Hans passed away - it's his final attempt to convince us that the world isn't as dark of a place as it may seem.

Using data, charts and his immense experience, in this book, Hans outlines the reasons why we think the world is in worse shape than it really is. It starts with a quiz that you can fill out: it includes questions on extreme poverty, schooling, vaccination and other vital, global issues. Following the quiz, the book proceeds to analyse why you answered the questions the way you did - and what you can do to change the way you think. And why you should do so.

What did I like about it?

When someone says 'data-driven', I usually wince. Not because I don't know that data is vital to understanding, but because I worry whether I will get it. Not so with this book. Hans has a deep love of statistics and numbers-based analysis, and it is precisely this that allows him to demonstrate how things are really looking. In a four-page spread, for example, he uses clearly readable charts to demonstrate things that are, in fact, looking much better than what we thought (including the number of guitars per capita, demonstrating human progress - he's better at explaining why than I would be if I tried).

What Hans does in this book is identify ten of our instincts that influence the way we think and see things. Instincts such as negativity, fear, destiny (assuming things are predetermined) or line (assuming that charts will continue in a straight direction as opposed to changing all the time). It's nothing we weren't vaguely aware of, but something that needed pointing out. What's more, he finishes each chapter with a short summary and some easy to follow action points on how to employ factfulness in our day-to-day lives.

Besides the good structure, Hans' writing is entertaining and accessible at all times. Human, interesting anecdotes help demonstrate his points, and he doesn't shy away from admitting his own mistakes in these stories. Some are downright terrifying. This is what keeps the book close to the reader - none of the content is distanced from us, it is truly showing the world we live in today.

What was I not massively fond of?

Perhaps the one thing I thought from time to time is that by keeping the language so accessible, the book sometimes tips over to the fluffy side, running the danger of not being taken seriously. Of course, that will be the shortfall of the reader - because this book is overwhelmingly fact-based - but there's a risk. We just need to be careful not to assume that everything is already on track to improve by itself. Hans calls himself a "possibilist" as opposed to an optimist, as his beliefs are rooted in real-life data - and that's his main message, as opposed to 'everything is bliss'.

Some of the instincts also felt a little like repetition - some of them perhaps could have been grouped into one instinct, instead of pulling them into two separate chapters. One such example for me was destiny and generalisation - but I suppose that, although some elements may be similar, they still both have some elements that merit deeper analysis. So ultimately, I'm happy to leave the ten instincts as they are without disputing them further.

Overall...

Bill Gates pledged to gift a copy of Factfulness to every US college graduate this year; Obama put the book on his summer reading list. Do you need more convincing to give this book a go?

Will it change your life? Probably not. It wasn't the gigantic eye opener many hyped it up to be. But it is a fascinating and educational read, and in the right mindset perhaps we'll all be a bit more motivated to help change the world - because, as Hans points out, it may be bad and better at the same time, but there's still time to improve.