Book report on "Factfulness by Hans Rosling"

    The book Factfulness was a very interesting read. Since coming to Stockton University I've known lots of colleagues who've read the book and I was always suggested to read the book. Everyone always said it was an eye opening read and changed perspectives on a lot of things.  So, I used this course as an opportunity to finally see what my colleagues were talking about... I wasn't disappointed. 

    The book "factfulness" demonstrates how the rise of new media has altered our vision as people. There's ten human instincts that Hans Rosling describes and breaks them down into 10 chapters. These are the instincts that misshape our perspective on the world. This book pretty much gives it to us straight up and "exposes" how the world really is without sugarcoating. FACT-ful-ness... It's about the facts. Rosling demonstrates how to battle these instincts we have as humans to form more fact based thoughts rather than have our minds washed by "fake news" or things that aren't what they seem. One big takeaway that I feel is a big theme of the book, that Hans Rosling has left with us as readers is to not be fooled into thinking the world is in worse shape than it is. This quote was on the back of the book and was a quote of our former president Barack Obama. I want to share it because I feel it is a powerful statement and helps describe the book's goal. "Factfulness.... is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off the facts rather than inherent biases." 

Chapter #8 was called, "the Single perspective instinct." The single perspective is our instinct to only solely focus on one view/or perspective when it comes to the world. That's being a closed minded thinker. I think this lesson was very valuable because to me, it emphasized how negative that kind of thinking can be. An example of that can be, solely relying on media to shape our opinions on things. It's good for our minds to venture and look at all aspects of the world. Open minded thinking > I think this instinct relates to our course in terms of the thinking aspect. I feel like these people who allow their perspective to be controlled and closed minded, aren't much of CRITICAL SLOW thinkers. This was my favorite chapter of the book as it really resonated with me and made me think deeply about how perspectives are shaped in the world today and how its better to be open minded. This book was well put together and a real eye opener.