MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf Nominations for October • The Times They Are a'Changin': Revolution

gmw · 09-11-2020, 01:05 AM

Now that the vote has left this book behind, can I just say that I thoroughly recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund.

It is a bit overdone in places, with (for example) too regular reminders that chimpanzees (random) would get more answers (about global trends) right than most well educated and very smart people. But, it was kept interesting by the author's enthusiastic tone and often personal anecdotes, and it was good to gain a global view of important trends, rather than American or Western centred that is so often the case. And it was particularly refreshing to have a book that was generally positive in its message.

The book is not unrealistic, it acknowledges that the world still has problems (it warns of the threat of a pandemic), but its central message is that we can best address those problems if we have a better understanding of the world. The constant references to how badly experts do at the sample questions about global trends are there to emphasise how little most of us actually understand - so, if you like, this is proof that the book/website really is needed.

Some of the charts in the book were hard to read on an e-reader, but the ones that actually mattered (those not comparing experts to chimpanzees) were mostly okay.

For those that like video and audio presentations, the Gapminder website carries most of the same information (including big, interactive versions of the graphs, and thousands of photos from around the world demonstrating the comparisons being stated). I preferred the structured presentation of the book, but tastes vary.

Hans Rosling died in Feb 2017, before the book was published, but his son and daughter-in-law (co-authors), saw it through to publication in 2018.

09-11-2020, 01:05 AM	#51
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,809 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Now that the vote has left this book behind, can I just say that I thoroughly recommend *Factfulness* by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund. It is a bit overdone in places, with (for example) too regular reminders that chimpanzees (random) would get more answers (about global trends) right than most well educated and very smart people. But, it was kept interesting by the author's enthusiastic tone and often personal anecdotes, and it was good to gain a global view of important trends, rather than American or Western centred that is so often the case. And it was particularly refreshing to have a book that was generally positive in its message. The book is not unrealistic, it acknowledges that the world still has problems (it warns of the threat of a pandemic), but its central message is that we can best address those problems if we have a better understanding of the world. The constant references to how badly experts do at the sample questions about global trends are there to emphasise how little most of us actually understand - so, if you like, this is proof that the book/website really is needed. Some of the charts in the book were hard to read on an e-reader, but the ones that actually mattered (those not comparing experts to chimpanzees) were mostly okay. For those that like video and audio presentations, the Gapminder website carries most of the same information (including big, interactive versions of the graphs, and thousands of photos from around the world demonstrating the comparisons being stated). I preferred the structured presentation of the book, but tastes vary. Hans Rosling died in Feb 2017, before the book was published, but his son and daughter-in-law (co-authors), saw it through to publication in 2018.