Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think was recommended to me by a good friend because he thought I might like it and this was a Recommendation Success. We like to see them.

The book explains some human instincts (or heuristics as psychologists would call them). Rule of thumbs or shortcuts the brain likes to take to make life easier. However, Hans Rosling explains, because of these instincts, our (as in, highly educated people living in income level 4 countries) worldview has become skewed. The book starts with a few simple looking questions. You can probably google them and I recommend you do so! However, the smartest people in the world get these questions wrong (they are even worse than random!). Then with the help of those questions, Rosling explains the underlying instincts we tend to use and why we are so horrible in answering these easy seeming questions.

Rosling explains the instincts with stories from his life which gives the book also an autobiographical characteristic. His writing and life experiences are wonderful and as a reader, you bond with the writer because he seems like such a sweet man. I was sad to learn in the Outro that Hans Rosling passed away a few years ago due to pancreatic cancer. So sad, even that I shed a few tears because I did really feel a small bond and his life story is amazing on its own.

I highly recommend Factfulness to anyone who might think the world is bleak and we are all doomed and to those who think they already know every about the world and no one can teach them anything anymore.