Factfulness
On sale
3rd April 2018
Price: £19.99
‘A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.’ BARACK OBAMA
‘One of the most important books I’ve ever read – an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.’ BILL GATES
*#1 Sunday Times bestseller * New York Times bestseller * Observer ‘best brainy book of the decade’ * Irish Times bestseller * Guardian bestseller * audiobook bestseller *
Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.
When asked simple questions about global trends – why the world’s population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty – we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates and investment bankers.
In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective.
It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. 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.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library.
(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
‘One of the most important books I’ve ever read – an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.’ BILL GATES
*#1 Sunday Times bestseller * New York Times bestseller * Observer ‘best brainy book of the decade’ * Irish Times bestseller * Guardian bestseller * audiobook bestseller *
Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.
When asked simple questions about global trends – why the world’s population is increasing; how many young women go to school; how many of us live in poverty – we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates and investment bankers.
In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective.
It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. 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.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library.
(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Reviews
A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.
One of the most important books I've ever read-an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.
Wonderful... a passionate and erudite message that is all the more moving because it comes from beyond the grave... His knack for presentation and delight in statistics come across on every page. Who else would choose a chart of "guitars per capita" as a proxy for human progress?
An assault both on ignorance and pessimism . . . helping countries improve their governance and public health and opening them up to the rule of law and market exchange works. But not by some sort of magic. Because we act. And to this, as Rosling argues, we first have to understand the world we live in.
A wonderful guide to an improving world, as well as being a well-stocked source of sound advice as to how to think about factual and statistical claims . . . The book is a pleasure to read - simple, clear, memorable writing - and when you've finished you'll be a lot wiser about the world. You'll also feel rather happier . . . Factfulness - the relaxing peace of mind you get when you have a clearer view of how the world really is . . . I strongly recommend this book.
We need more of this way of thinking, both in business and politics. Where better to start than a new book by one of Gates' favourite gurus, the late Swedish statistician Hans Rosling . . . in an age of so-called post-truth, this is a celebration of the all too often repudiated but underlying story of relentless human progress.
[Bill] Gates had selected the tomes as his favourite summer reads . . . [which included] feel-good non-fiction . . . celebrating technological progress and genius, such as Hans Rosling's Factfulness.
Hans Rosling tells the story of "the secret silent miracle of human progress" as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.
Three minutes with Hans Rosling will change your mind about the world.
Thoroughly researched and clearly written . . . this is a measured, objective, and ultimately optimistic account of where we are and how we got here.
Factfulness has the power to shift your entire perspective. If you want to understand the world, read it now!
Triumphant.
Bestselling books about statistics are as rare as unicorns. One that gets to No.1 is as rare as a lunar unicorn. Factfulness by Hans Rosling is that moon-based creature . . . engaging.
Factfulness is a fabulous read, succinct and lively. It asks why so many people - including Nobel laureates and medical researchers - get the numbers so wrong on pressing issues such as poverty, pandemics and climate change... a just tribute to this book and the man would be a global day of celebration for facts about our world.
An unexpectedly uplifting read.
The message is refreshingly clear: when you only hold opinions about things you know the facts about, you can see the world more clearly.
I had very high expectations; the book exceeded them. Superb guide to the world and how to be wiser about it. Great storytelling. An inspiration.
An insistently hopeful, fact-based booster shot for a doomsaying, world-weary population [which] parts the dingy curtains of global pessimism to reveal an alternate and uplifting perspective on the state of world issues today. Co-written with Rosling's son and daughter-in-law, the book effectively educates, uplifts, and reassures readers. . . In compelling readers to comprehend the positive aspects of world changes using practical thinking tools, Rosling delivers a sunny global prognosis with a sigh of relief. - Kirkus
Rosling's final work is about the misconceptions most people hold about the world we live in - it's better than we think - and a plea to think critically.
Factfulness ... , a light-hearted but data-rich book, calibrates our view of the world and explains how our cognitive processes can lead us astray
A powerful antidote to pervasive pessimism and populist untruths.
An immensely cheering book in these anxious times.
[An] accessible, smart-thinking read which reveals the preconceptions that make us misunderstand the way the world works
[A] smart read
It was such a hopeful book - it's about why society is better off than we think and how many of the problems we think exist, don't
I recommend starting 2021 with the late Hans Rosling's book, Factfulness - for incontrovertible evidence of "the secret, silent miracle of human progress."