Bill Gates and Barak Obama included the book Factfulness, by Hans Rosling on their 2018 summer reading list. I’ve been a Rosling fan since I stumbled onto his TED Talk: the best stats you’ve ever seen years ago. Obviously this went on my reading list as well.
Took the test at the front of the book. Promptly failed it – like everyone else, despite my fandom. Interesting. As I read I acknowledged that YES … things are significantly better now than in the 1800s – in SO many ways. Huge changes in just 200 years. And the improvements in MY lifetime (since the 60’s) – ASTOUNDING! Extreme poverty in decline. Fewer babies die in childbirth. More people have access to electricity and clean water. Most people live in middle-income countries. Worldwide, people live longer and are more educated (even GIRLS).
Yet strangely this good news is tucked away from our awareness by basic human instincts. Which may be why Rosling and his family wrote the book – to identify and outline our blinders and help us become aware. They describe ten reasons “even people with access to the latest information get the world wrong.” Too often we’re oblivious to our own misconceptions.
These instincts may be hard to conquer, but it’s worth trying. The Rosling team recommends we teach our children (and ourselves) humility and curiosity.
“Being humble, here, means being aware of how difficult your instincts can make it to get the facts right. It means being realistic about the extent of your knowledge. It means being happy to say “I don’t know.” It also means, when you do have an opinion, being prepared to change it when you discover new facts. It is quite relaxing being humble, because it means you can stop feeling pressure to have a view about everything, and stop feeling you must be ready to defend your views all the time.”
On the heels of reading Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari – realizing how humans exploited the planet and wiped out countless species – and the constant shower of chaos spewed by our leaders and the media – my angst was eased to learn the fact; things are improving – bit by bit. Drip, drip, drip. I just need to open my eyes and my heart – and be willing to change my mind.
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“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” – Albert Einstein
Those thoughts – they keep me chained to my ego. They harden me. The need to be right – to believe that the miniscule sliver of knowledge I possess is better, more important; superior to anything anyone else may know or believe. It’s easy to harden; to think I’m all that. A rigid stance must break if real change is desired.