Factfulness (Chapter one)

Over the past twenty years, the proportion of the global population living in extreme poverty has halved.

Almost all children are vaccinated in the world today.

The idea that things are getting worse is an illusion. Once you know what to look for you'll be able to protect yourself from being fooled.

By diving the world in two misleading boxes - poor and rich - it completely distorts all the global proportions in people's minds.

Humans have a strong urge to binary thinking, to devide into two distinct groups, with nothing in between.

Whenever you see only two sides (good /evil, us/them, rich/poor, ugly/handsome) you should be sceptical. As they're missing out the biggest part. Those in between.

Today, most people are in the middle. There's no gap between the west and the rest, between developed and developing,between rich and poor. And we should all stop using the simple pairs of categories that suggest that there is.

To summarise :low-income countries are much more developed than most people think. And vastly fewer people live in them. The idea of a devided world with a majority stuck in misery and deprivation is an illusion. A complete misconception. Simply wrong.

When presented a binary option remember, that in most cases, the majority lies somewhere in between.

We almost always get a more accurate picture by digging a little deeper and looking not just at the averages but at the spread :not just at the group all bundled together, but at the induviduals. Then we often see that apparently distinct groups are in fact very much overlapping.

Beware of comparisons of averages

Beware of comparisons of extremes

To control the gap instinct, look for the majority.

Journalists know this. They set up narratives as conflicts between two opposing people, views, or groups. They prefer stories of extreme poverty and billionaires to stories about the vast majority of people slowly dragging themselves towards better lives. Journalists are storytellers. So are people who produce documentaries and movies. Documentaries pit the fragile individual against the big, evil corporation. Blockbuster movies usally feature good fighting evil.

The gap instinct makes us imagine devision where there is a smooth range, different where there is convergence, and conflict where there is agreement.

This is where propaganda happens. We are pitted into us/them and then told what people like us think /do and what they think/do. Being aware of the gap instinct will help us to avoid the brainwashing.

I love this book and wanted to share my notes. Chapter one had so much in itself that I felt breaking these lists into chapters would be more benificial. Please if you liked this list, read the book. It'll change how you see the world and make you happier and smarter in the process.

I see a lot of people falling for the gap instinct. How many fights have you seen due to it? Being aware is the first step to avoiding fights. If you can show where the majority lye you can debunk their claim and help make others a little smarter in the process.