In a world blanketed by negativity, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pocket of positivity in the book “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than We Think” by Hans Rosling.
The book came to me via a recommendation from Bill Gates and his blog, GatesNotes.
Gates is a fantastic source for new books to read, and, as usual, he wasn’t wrong about this particular volume.
Gates was friends with Rosling, a Swedish physician and academic who died in 2017, and he describes the book, published posthumously in 2018, as a “breakthrough.”
Indeed, it’s helped reframe my perspective on a number of important issues in our world today. In the book, Rosling says our worldview - which he describes as skewed and as a poor representation of how things actually are - has everyone thinking we’re worse off than any period in our history.
Rosling argues the opposite, and he uses statistics to support his claim.
A brief summary of the book is this: We’re making amazing progress, with far less poverty than ever before, longer lifespans, protected human rights and a booming global economy.
Some of the most interesting statistics presented by Rosling include:
- The world’s level of extreme poverty has been cut in half in the past 20 years - but only five percent of people in the U.S. knew this fact. Most of us thought it had nearly doubled.
- In 1800, 85 percent of the world was in extreme poverty; in 2017, the number was 9 percent.
- Women have more access to education now than at any period in our history, with 60 percent of girls in low-income nations finishing public school.
- The rates of death due to natural disasters is only 25 percent of what it was 100 years ago due to advancements in affordable building materials.
- The fear of overpopulation is unnecessary as global trends, such as the decrease in poverty, indicate the world population will flatten out between 2060 and 2100. As poverty lessens, people tend to have fewer children due to education and birth control options.
- In 2016, there were 9.5 million crimes in the U.S. compared to the 1990 number of 14.5 million.
- The number of yearly infant deaths has decreased by 10 million in less than 70 years.
- Eighty percent of the world’s children have some form of basic health care and are vaccinated against disease.
Rosling argues that 10 instincts warp our perspective of reality, including gap, negativity, straight line, fear, size, generalization, destiny, single perspective, blame and urgency.
Of the 10, I am - and most likely you are, too - very guilty of the negativity instinct, or the instinct to notice the bad more than the good.
The author’s matter-of-fact delivery - and his treasure trove of research - led me to a simple conclusion: In almost every measurable category, life is better than it was even 50 years ago.
In order for us to see this fact for ourselves, Rosling urges readers to accept that we’re largely ignorant of the bigger picture, to embrace the right kind of data and all sides of an issue, and to travel more.
Of course, our world does have a great number of challenges, but by putting everything in perspective and practicing “Factfulness,” we can realize how good things are - and how we’re able to rise to the challenge of solving our problems.
Personally, I’m looking forward to a bright future, and I think picking up Rosling’s book will help brighten your outlook, too.
Joshua Wilson, a resident of Hattiesburg, is a marketing and public relations practitioner and the owner of Jowil Media, LLC. He writes occasionally on his Recovering Pessimist blog at www.jowil.media. Write him at joshua@jowil.media.
