It’s one of the best books I read during 2018.

Hans Rosling was a great author (and a speaker) and he expressed his ideas in a very clear way. One of the great things that open this book, is the test that he gives you at the beginning. It comes to prove you, how little you know about the world we live in. It drives the point home very clearly.

Don’t believe?

Try it for yourself:

…and now scroll down and check your results…

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10

Go, but please be honest.

How many answers you were able to get correctly?

The two main ideas I took from the books are the new framework Hans proposes: four income groups and the ten instincts that prevent us from seeing the world as it is. He devotes most of the book to show the different instincts, from the fear instinct (= more attention to scary things) to the size instinct (standalone numbers often look more impressive than they really are) to the gap instinct (most people fall between two extremes). With each one, he offers practical advice about how to overcome our innate biases.

I highly recommend this book. If you wish to get a taste of his brilliant mind and clear explanations here is one of his Ted talks: