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

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This should be required reading in school--multiple tames. Say, seventh grade, junior year of high school, and at least once again in any higher education.

What I loved best about this book is that it wasn't as 100% optimistic as the subtitle makes it seem. Rosling makes a great comparison of the state of the world with a baby born prematurely: every day, things are better--still not great, but better. It's so rare that I can find people who can appreciate two realities at once.

And it's not all statistical. This book was clearly a labor of love, and Rosling is open, honest, and very human with his personal examples and disclaimers. It's such a shame that he died before the book was published--I would have loved to hear this remarkable man speak, and maybe even tried to work for him. After all, I'm writing my final paper for my preservation course on preserving digital datasets.

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