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

In terms of war, corruption, oppression, unnecessary deaths, and overall human well-being, this is by far the best time to be alive in human history.

It’s really not even close.

For those that are actually interested:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250107814/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_i_ujXXDbDQ5PDWJ

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143111388/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_i_0nXXDbKSSRGA7

You’re not wrong. Even in developing countries it’s better than at any time in history. Check out the book Factfullness if you like to read. It’s pretty amazing.

> "Collectively, the world is more stressed, worried, sad and in pain today than we've ever seen it,"

I would contend that this statement from the article is contentious. Was the world less stressed during the major wars that have plagued it? What about the cold war?

Here are multiple counterexamples of things going better: https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

Scroll down and have a look at the graphs

Lastly, this is a short time-span. Movement upwards could simply be regression toward/away from the mean

I try to shut off the hysterics as much as possible. NEVER watch tv news and especially none of the dedicated news channels.

Also read and think about things like this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814/

Lähteeksi on mainittu Hans Roslingin tuore kirja Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

People have always been treated like shit, though. As I understand it, what's changed is our exposure. With 24/7 media/internet, we're just seeing things we wouldn't have seen before. They were still happening before. We just didn't see them. It's also much easier to focus on specific types of discourse and information and that can make it seem like such information is increasing in amount. It's not. We're just exposing ourselves to more of it. If I started following r/Malta, it'd be tempting in a couple months to slide into the thinking that shit is "suddenly" heading south there. All the bad stories. All the abuses. In reality, it was always there because people are dicks regardless. Collectively, from what I understand, though, things are overall getting better in a lot of ways. I don't know how much bias is in it, but someone recommended the book Factfulness the other day. Haven't ordered it yet, but I'm going to because personally I'd like a little positivity in my geopolitical forecasts for once.

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

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

Please read a book like this. Wealth disparity might be getting larger but the world is getting better for people due to capitalism.

Wealth gaps are a red herring. Yes, we should tax rich people more and close loopholes and redistribute a bunch of it. However, rich people should exist and having billionaires is not a problem. Having rich people actually has made the world better in a lot of ways. We just need to have them provide more than they have already.

I just posted this on another thread. Buy this book. Read it and show the fam. in a respectful way. It’s a very balanced view of the world based on facts. It has a cool website that shows graphical examples around the world.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250107814/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.VDsDbTYESQV2

Hello! I am a social investment supporter. My journey started last year when I read Hans Rosling's book: Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World -- and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. According to Hans, the best investment opportunities are in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa. He described how we should look at statistics to make smart business decisions. I especially liked how he was optimistic about the future of the world and how countries are working hard to get out of poverty. It's not an investing book per se but it gives a good insight on where you might want to focus your attention if you want to make a difference in this world. It also solidified my rule to invest in the Philippines only and not be distracted by any foreign investment product (as I am currently based abroad).

Here's a TEDtalk as an intro to Hans Rosling: https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty/


I further asked myself how could his ideas be particularly applicable in the Philippines, where a lot of my countrymen are still living in poverty? Fortunately, I found Vince Rapisura on Facebook and he constantly discusses being a "Social Investor." Before meeting him, I have never heard anything about Social or Impact investing. I thought investing was just to make my money work for me. But through him, I learned that investing can create more value than just mere profit. We can select investments that have a conscious goal of making a positive impact on society. Vince's company, SEDPI, is focused on such ventures and his presentations are on his website: https://vincerapisura.com/impact-investing-handouts/

I am still reading more books about the topic and my search got me to Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. It was written by Muhammad Yunus and he earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Bangladesh. I think his concepts are pretty similar to what Vince is doing with his company.

Let me also share this episode about Tagum Cooperative (which Vince has been raving about recently) and I must say their work and mission are inspiring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQbtbORwUfE

Sorry, I am just blabbing about my recent reading/watching list but to answer your question, yes, socially responsible investments have been on my mind lately and I got excited when I saw your question. I admit that I still have an index fund and I know that some companies there don't have the best reputations, so I am slowly transitioning and studying more materials in order to invest in enterprises that I can understand and have the same principles as I do. It is a hard task but hopefully, I would get there. If you ever have a chance to attend a seminar by Vince, I'd say go for it.

Estaba Leyendo Factfulness, y en verdad doy gracias a personas como el Doctor Monckeberg que lograron con su trabajo erradicar la desnutrición, combatir la falta de estimulación a edades tempranas, y en general disminuir la mortalidad infantil. También por impulsar un programa de salud que estuviera enfocado a suplir las necesidades de salud básicas más inmediatas de la población, además del programa integro para madres, lactantes, niños.

En las propias palabras del Doctor: Es el avance más trascendente en la historia de este país.

It doesn't dive into the US ethnic divides, but the book Factfulness takes a stab at some other "situations everyone assumes are still bad even though they've gotten a lot better."

I'm not sure if this would work or not, but I would try redirecting people who have conservative or right-wing leaning views at least toward better thinkers than Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson and toward optimistic views of the future of society, to cull some of the us-vs-them and zero-sum thinking that plagues these discussions.

Sometimes it feels like men, especially, feel existentially threatened by other modes of thought, so being at least sympathetic to the good bits of their ideas and offering something similar but that promotes openness and liberal ideas may help.

Hans Rosling's Factfulness presents a pretty optimistic view of the world. It's all getting better! Seriously!

Jonathan Haidt (and Greg Lukianoff for the first book)

• The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
  
• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
  
  I had worried that the first book would be a reiteration of right-wing talking points around safe spaces, but I was surprised to find it a good listen so far. It mentions several cognitive distortions and how cognitive behavioral therapy can overcome them as well. The second book is sympathetic to conservative views and gives a good tour of moral psychology. Really recommend.
  
  Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined is also good. Seriously, the world is getting better! Pinker is heavier on the nature side that most lefties, so knowing that may make people more receptive if they won't receive an gender argument without some mention of biology.

Ok, ma prima di tirar fuori Mussolini, ascolta questa storia. A lei e' andata bene. Ad altri no.

Poi, vorrei fare un tentativo anche se in fondo non sono affari miei; ma qualcosa vorrei dirti.

Ti ripeto, non e' un attacco personale ma mostri sintomi inquietanti di dipendenza da Internet/Facebook, e si vede da come usi la lingua:
"piu' e piu' ", "disappunto", i medici "silenziati" .. spero che tu non stia perdendo il contatto con la realta'.

Se hai voglia, ecco un libro che ti consiglio.

It's bullshit, in France it's much more complicated. Nobody but the racist and far-right are making everything they can to link and make a causality relation between the rise of rape reports and refugee crisis.

• France has always welcomed refugees for DECADES. But somehow right now it's a problem? Careful when people jump to conclusion to further their sick agendas.
  
  
• The reports can be explained using other "metrics", for instance the feminist and all social movements that occurred not only in France but worldwide too, making it easier for people to report rape, for instance within a couple, something that too many people never dared doing (and there are reasons for that).
  
  Right wingers love to interpret and use statistics as much as they can to make everyone believe their sick views on the world.
  
  Even though, in general we are progressing, but that's thanks to the majority of humankind. There is a book I read that one of my old geopolitics teachers recommended us via email: check it out it's called "Factfulness : Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think".
  
  While this won't reply to the rape questions, at least in France I can provide more links, if you're willing to right click > translate to English but it won't be perfect sadly. For a starter this is a decent article: https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2017/10/04/ou-peut-on-trouver-les-chiffres-annuels-de-plaintes-pour-viol-d-affaires-resolues-d-affaires-passees_1652544
  
  As you will see it's complex, and whoever tries to come here and say otherwise is 100% bullshitting.
  
  Also notice how the people who always push these views act like we should take their word for it, never trying to back up their arguments.

I'm much more interested in Rosling's book, which I'm hoping will capture what's useful in Pinker's (most things in public health we can measure are getting better for most people in the world, while most people are incorrect in thinking they're getting worse) without having to create a religion around how all those (mostly) good things are inevitable as long as we believe in the same things Pinker does. I haven't read either book yet, but it doesn't sound like Pinker is wrong about what has happened, just overreaching on why as is his custom.

I believe this is from Factfulness.

https://archive.org/details/FactfulnessByHansRosling/page/n47

​

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

May I recommend this excellent book to you:

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

D

You're not wrong. The timeframes vary based on what societal dimension you're discussing at a given point, but many aspects of global society are significantly better today than in the recent and distant past. Education levels, equality, access to food, mortality rates, life expectancies, literacy, and so on.

I'd you're not familiar with it, I'd recommend the book Factfulness. Pretty good book on this topic of perspective vs reality.

(Edit - fixed link)

Factfulness by Hans Rosling

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

Stephen Pinker is awesome. Need to check out his latest but I have read this:



https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf


Recently in the same vein. The (late) author calls it “data therapy”. Although I spent a week in the non-Cancun-parts-of-Mexico immediately after reading it which tempered my enthusiasm somewhat.

You should read the book Factfullness.
https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1540911747&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=factfulness&dpPl=1&dpID=51tvugRSHKL&ref=plSrch

You are overly pessimistic and you make an assumption that “Mother Nature is all about balance”. Where is there proof of this? There is no such thing as Mother Nature.

Getting a bit off topic here - but despite the many things that are wrong with the US, its still a pretty great place to live - far from a dystopia. Highly recommend the book Factfulness, which although is really about the world as a whole - it can certainly be scaled to ones views of the US.

Check it out if you want, or not.

Recomendo fortemente pra você o livro Factfulness

Read Rosling's Factfulness. The book format is nice, but the .pdf is everywhere. Watch Hans' TED talks, too. They're the core ideas, condensed. Here's one of his earlier ones, but I think it's one of his best, too.

The data is real. When your cynicism pushes back, tell it to get bent and accept the factual truth that it falsely proclaims it has sole access to. That's what I did to mine, and it was pretty effective, too.

it's frustrating people are down voting you when your suspicion is correct. anyone who feels the urge to down vote would hopefully get a lot from reading a book like Factfulness.

Extreme poverty is actually the lowest than it has ever been, and it's getting better everyday.

We are not perfect yet, and there's still a lot to be done, but I do have a lot of hope for the future.

This book will possibly change how you view the world:
https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814/ref=nodl_

http://factfulnessquiz.com/

This stuff is not easy, I'm not expecting to change your way of thinking with this one comment.
But maybe it could help you with exploring a different angle and realising that not all things are bad and that there's also a lot of good in the world.

I'd say:

Yes there is a lot of dumb and awful things in the world, but it is easier to focus on the bad than the good, there's also many amazing advancements humans are making every day by working at it diligently:

Worldwide poverty is lower than it has ever been in history and keeps dropping.

People are finding cures for awful diseases all the time.

Nations are becoming more and more developed, child deaths and births are dropping, there's no endless growth happening, it's all dropping off to a stable level.

Companies have always done shady shit, but we are getting better at calling them out and improving people's lives.

More people have the right to live happily, to marry who they love.

There's no widespread slavery anymore, there's not even a real war between nation states, just some terrorist dudes in a desert somewhere, and yes that is in the news all the time but compared to even the balkan wars in the 90s there's nowhere near as much suffering in today's world.

For every "bought" artist there's lots of people and groups making their own music and having success with it, it's easy to look at most listened to lists on youtube or spotify and dismiss all of those artists but take a look at smaller artists, browse bandcamp or something to find people that do what they love and support them with it.

There's a great book that puts a lot of these fallacies of thinking the world is getting worse to the test but I forgot the name of it, you'll have to take my word until I can find it again.

Edit: found it, check it out for another perspective on things if you wish:

link

You should read the book Factfulness.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250107814/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jyCYBbN7HD2TP

Bill Gates bought it for all graduating college seniors in the US. It's basically about how we have antiquated views of the world, and things are generally much better than we think. In other words, it's worth it to make the world a better place because it's actually helping.

Here is a book on that topic.

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

There’s a great book about this if anyone is interested in also hearing about how much better life is for most of the world. Factfulness


The truth is, so much of what we see in the news, on social, etc. is geared towards fear because it’s such a powerful emotion. Nothing is perfect, nor will it ever be, but if you look at the problems we have today vs those of even 50 years ago, it’s amazing how far we have come

There is still more to be done, don’t get me wrong. But feeling hopeless is a great way to demotivate yourself and a simple way for those in power to stay there, especially while fucking over “their” people.

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

I think you might like this book

This is what he will recommend : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250107814/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_awdo_KZcDCbRWYZQ5P

I know it's easy to feel poorly about the world, and our own lives, but the reality is quite positive. I recommend the book Factfulness. The times we live in are actually quite spectacular...and they're getting better.

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538738715&sr=8-2&keywords=factfulness&dpID=51tvugRSHKL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Factfulness will really open your eyes to the amazing improvements humanity has made over the last generation. A refreshing perspective that typically gets overshadowed by the doom and gloom of today's reporting

> also many people don't understand or exaggerate that developed and undeveloped part, years ago i was with a friend of mine and we were talking to some girl from germany for fun, and she asked us "do you in syria have cars and phones like us?"

That just means 'developed' and 'underdeveloped' are poor labels, or that 'underdeveloped' contains a much wider group than the other one. Factfulness separated people in 4 income groups, perhaps this is better with you?:

> Level 1: People live on less than $2 a day. Rosling estimates that one billion people are living at or below this threshold. They get around on their own two barefoot feet, cook over an open flame like a cookfire, fetch water in a bucket, and sleep on the ground.

This is what most people understand if they hear the word underdeveloped/developing. Basically, tribes and very conservative lifestyles.

> Level 2: This is the income group where the majority of the world's people live. They get by on between $2 and $8 a day and might have some possessions like a bicycle, a mattress, or a gas canister for cooking at home.

This is the stereotypical view of Eastern Europe, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America in movies, and while this might be true in those regions for rural areas, most of the people living there are level 3 and 4.

> Level 3: This is the second most populous category on Rosling's list, after level 2. People in level 3 live on anywhere from $8 a day to $32. They have running water, might own a motorbike or car, and their meals are a rich and colorful mix of foods from day to day. They also probably have electricity and a fridge, which makes things like studying and eating enough varied nutrients easier.

What you were talking about are countries in Level 3.

> Level 4: Like level 1, roughly one billion of the world's people live on this level. They make $32 a day or more and have things like running water (both hot and cold) at home, a vehicle in the driveway, and plenty of nutrients on their plate. They've also likely had the chance to finish twelve years of school, or more.

Basically, the people who want to help.

If you look at the image, above "China" you see a vague text: "data doubts", so they know this data has issues. All data is from the UN btw. You can download this app and play around. And if you're interested, but book Factfulness is a great read, about the state of the world and mostly how the western view is often very wrong about it.

Jeg er ved at læse Hans roslings sidste bog.

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

Den er rigtig god, masser af input om hvordan man kan se på verden hvis man tænker på fakta og ikke så meget på mediernes fokus på katastrofer og drama.

Det er ham der har ret og hvor journalisten tager fejl.

https://heartbeats.dk/jeg-har-ret-og-du-tager-fejl/

Before you believe random youtube videos on global statistics. I recommend you read 'factfullness' by Hans Rosling

​

He passed in 2017 but was a health specialist to the UN and He was the Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rosling

​

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

If you want to cheer yourself up a little you could have a look at this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

For example, two-thirds of US citizens believe the global proportion of people living in extreme poverty has doubled in the past couple of decades; it has halved. The world is not as gloomy as you may think.

Please read this book to educate yourself on why this is incorrect: https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

Quality on life is, on average, increasing all over the world.

Some things are getting worse, and for certain people life is shit, but on average humanity is better off than ever.


I really recommend book called Factfullness.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, coauthored with his son, Ola Rosling, and daughter-in-law, Anna Rosling Rönnlund.