factualness by Hans Rosling

A timely, short and essential book about the power of facts in a post-truth world, by late international sensation Hans Rosling (‘a true inspiration’ – Bill Gates).

“This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance and my final attempt at making an impact on the world. It has been my daily inspiration and joy. In my previous battles, I armed myself with huge data sets, beautiful software, an energetic lecturing style and a Swedish bayonet for sword swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope that this book will be.”

When you ask people simple questions about global trends, they systematically get the answers wrong. How many young women go to school? What’s the average life expectancy across the world? What will the global population will be in 2050? Do the majority of people live in rich or poor countries?

In FACTFULNESS, Hans Rosling and his two lifelong collaborators, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling-Ronnlund, show why this happens. Based on a lifetime’s work promoting a fact-based worldview, they reveal the ten dramatic instincts, and the key preconceptions, that lead to us consistently misunderstanding how the world really works.

Inspiring and revelatory, FACTFULNESS is a book of stories by a late legend, for anyone who wants to really understand the world.

Duffy’s Review Of Factfulness by Hans Rosling

I’ve always had a tendency to not believe mass media and love watching the precious ten minutes a week where the headlines of tabloids and news agencies are exposed as fraudulent every Monday on Mediawatch. I naively thought that Factfulness had nothing more to teach me, and I was surprised to be proved wrong by Hans Rosling and his lifelong goal to get the facts out there and change the way we think.

Factfulness is a short, concise book which is jammed full of stats, mostly taken from the UN. There is a survey of general questions at the beginning of the book, and how you answer these, underpin how you interpret and understand the rest of the book.

When answering questions on global trends I was consistently way off. Why was this? This wasn’t just due to listening to ‘fake news’ this is because the data used in school and college was outdated too! You believe what your family tells you about the world as a child and you certainly believe your teacher.

Factfulness opens your eyes and will have you questioning your perceptions of the world today, and also thinking twice before believing a number or statistics emblazoned across the front page of a newspaper.

3 out of 5 from me. Interesting, eye-opening, and loaded with lots and lots of data

factfulness book review

Factfulness is released in Australia April 10 – Pre-Order here!

Check reviews of other non-fiction books here