Oct 2019
10:42am, 2 Oct 2019
32,576 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Banjo - examples of wrong world view please? That sounds intriguing.  G
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Oct 2019
11:42am, 2 Oct 2019
4,814 posts
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BanjoBax
just a couple of my examples - I had a decades out of date view of how poor the "poor" countries were and my view on population growth was wrong Rosling has asked the general population of countries and specialist groups including economic experts at Davos etc questions about the world - typically wealth and health related and compared to the official facts mainly using WHO & UNICEF figures. Rosling shows how much better off the world is than previously and challenges incorrect views, including illustrating that his home nation of Sweden was at a lower level when he was born and lower still in his parents and grandparents eras. For those at the lowest of the 4 levels of average wealth of nations that Rosling uses (UNICEF have adopted them too he says) to classify countries, its bad, but its better, and there are far far fewer of these countries. He emphasises there is no gap but a range, he explains how we tend to think in gaps and it misleads us, particularly in the higher levels where everything below looks very poor. Apparently the population of 15-30 year olds (typical parent age world wide) is the same as the child grouping 0-15 indicating childbirth has plateau'd , population growth now is coming as people already born move up the age range rather than increasing numbers of children being born - populated is expected to flatten off about 11Bn. The majority of the world having fewer children on average as the world gets wealthier - having large families to counter child mortality and ensure having family to care for you in old age is out of date for the vast majority of the world ( I hadnt realised this) I found the delivery of the book to be a bit dull, but getting some preconceptions corrected meant was worth sticking with. spoiler - he doesnt really ask chimps the questions, works on a random basis would get 1 in 3 right on average when 3 possible answers, frequently 10-15% humans getting questions right. |
Oct 2019
12:04pm, 2 Oct 2019
11,214 posts
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Cerrertonia
I remember Bill Gates's review of Factfulness being quite interesting (they were friends.) I think Steven Pinker's "Enlightment Now", which covers similar ground, is better.
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Oct 2019
12:05pm, 2 Oct 2019
8,870 posts
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larkim
My better half has just finished reading it, and whilst she is a geography teacher and was broadly aware of many of the misconceptions about the world that the book was aiming to correct, she still found much of the data and anecdotes helpful and interesting. Whilst she had similar concerns about the quality of the book overall in terms of the writing, she'd still recommend it for a refresh on some lingering ideas about the world that many assume to be correct.
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Oct 2019
12:41pm, 2 Oct 2019
9,158 posts
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rf_fozzy
Factfulness is a brilliant book. 2nd best read of the year for me. After "The Secret Barrister" - so much I didn't know about the UK legal system until I read that book. And how badly it's being screwed up. |
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Oct 2019
12:43pm, 2 Oct 2019
32,583 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Sounds really interesting, thanks Banjo. I really must bone up a bit more and read more non-fiction. G
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Oct 2019
12:57pm, 2 Oct 2019
9,159 posts
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rf_fozzy
Btw, did anyone see the highlights of the Patel CPC speech? Ignoring the ignorant and hateful content (with added dog whistles), the smugness with which she delivers it would be enough to ring alarm bells. twitter.com |
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Oct 2019
1:06pm, 2 Oct 2019
9,160 posts
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rf_fozzy
Also this on Boris Johnson's comment's in his speech today: twitter.com It's Trumpism - 'some people say' or 'many people have said' post-truth bollocks. |
Oct 2019
1:06pm, 2 Oct 2019
15,302 posts
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Chrisull
Patel is completely useless. Freedom of movement is a freedom, the clue is in the name. Can't think why people think removing it would be a good idea. Yeah I want less freedom, I don't want to be able to go places, work places, live in places without having to carry multitudes of documentation, having to pay extra costs. All just so I can sock it to a few mythical Schroedingers immigrants, because that what really boosts my ego, feeling superior to someone else. There used to be a few on here who argued borders were a "good thing" and necessary. But they're not. A truly gobsmackingly stupid speech. No borders. Now. |
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Oct 2019
1:08pm, 2 Oct 2019
32,586 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
+1 for that rant Chris! G
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