Factfulness: A must-read book for everyone!
Let’s say you were asked to respond to the below multiple-choice question: (the question was taken from the Gapminders global fact question bank) Try to guess the answer before you attempt to read the rest of my thoughts on the above-mentioned book and this subject.
How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years? What would be your response!
A- More than doubled
B- Remained more or less the same
C- Decreased to less than half
About two years ago, I read this wonderful book by the late Hans Rosling. Amazing read to understand how ignorant we all could be if we don’t understand or gather the right facts. It opened my eyes to check, rely on facts and does our best to make decisions based on the evidence available. Hans Rosling and his son who is also one of the co-founders of (https://www.gapminder.org/) shared a TED stage in September 2014 to share their love in bringing the reality and keeping the world informed about the truth of important topics which we may not know. At times we think we know, but the facts state otherwise. This famous TED Talk currently holds 2.3 million views and a must one for everyone who intends to this read book. (Ted Talk link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xF-UYgdg&t=14s). I must say I have read this book a few times!
Supported by the data from the World Bank and United Nations reports, late Hans Rosling and his writing team describe that the world is in better shape than many of us think. Over the years the world in many aspects has improved. To name few indicators, the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped almost by half as far as the late 1990s, deaths from natural disasters, child mortality, war casualties and hunger rate have also have fallen by quite a large number. Worldwide childhood vaccination, access to education and literacy have improved dramatically. In fact, that’s the reality. How many of us positively thinks that’s the case or believe this is true.
As I became a student of this topic, I attempted to take the Gapminders Test on Global Fact Check; (https://forms.gapminder.org/s3/test-2018_); My first attempt result was just 65%. After a few attempts, I got 100% and received the Global Fact Check Certificate. (note every time you try a new test you may get a different set of questions). As I became a student of this topic, I studied it further and attended a campus party in Singapore in July 2018, where Ola Rosling presented a workshop around how we as leaders should see the world. From that moment, I developed a couple of mastermind awareness sessions to teach to our Team Members. On my return, we took this topic to all our Senior Leadership Team Members at LUX* South Ari Atoll. Majority of our Team Members did the Gapminders Test and it was interesting to see our team engaged in such a global event. Nearly 60% of our Team Members got the Global Fact Check Certificate.
I also ran other awareness sessions to different organizations to introduce Gapminders Test and their work; during the initial stage we would run the test and many did not get the right answers. The main reason for this is we are bound to often believe the news coverage we hear from mainstream media. As we all know “good news travels slower than the bad news”, our mind at times is set to believe what we hear from the news rather than checking the facts. We all know not all reported by the mainstream media is 100% right. In fact, when the Gapminder ran the Global Fact Check for most of the mainstream media in the US and EU, they scored the lowest. Hans Rosling explains the same in his revealing TED Talk about how ignorant we are as human beings.
There is quite a lot of lessons we can learning from this book and other materials shared by the Gapminders foundation. (most of their resources are free) In general;
– The world as we see today is in a better state than what many of us think
– We have this misconception that things are not in the right direction, rather it’s getting worse. Factfulness shares that the truth is day by day we are in the right direction!
– At times we believe trends should continue always as an upward or a straight line. Gapminders research shows it rarely happens that way. Having a spike and downward trend is not a bad idea.
– When we as leaders do not understand the world from a fact-based mindset, we tend to make decisions which are not in line with the actual state of the world; this impacts our business in a negative way. We must find ways to learn facts and make our decisions based on the facts.
I know many of us are worried about COVID19 pandemic and what it is doing to the current state of the world. It is concerning, the world is in a gridlock and though things are moving slowly to some sort of reality, it will take a while, at least few years to get back to where the world was in 2019. Perhaps when we come out from this pandemic it will bring new opportunities and the world, in general, will head to a better place than it was.
My prediction based on the facts available globally, when the COVID19 pandemic hits us, the world was in a better state in all aspects than 1918, which was the time the world experience the famously known Spanish flu. 1918 pandemic and recovery took years. 2020 pandemic of COVID19 recovery will be quicker and even fast in some parts of the world; it all depends on how we react, take action and our behaviours towards recovery strategies.
In a world where everything is getting consistently better, we must find ways to be informed and make our decisions based on facts rather than opinions or biases. Like late Hans Rosling states, “the world is a safer and more hopeful place than most people believe”.
When we are aware of facts of what is actually happening around, likely chance we make the right choices, make good decisions and everyone else benefit from the same.
Take a moment to try the Gapminder Global Fact check test. Good Luck! (Correct answer to the question at the beginning of this article is C- decreased to less than half)