This was an encouraging, uplifting look at many of the successes and bright spots that often get overlooked.
However, it's clear things need to be takThis was an encouraging, uplifting look at many of the successes and bright spots that often get overlooked.
However, it's clear things need to be taken with a large grain of salt. I admit, my initial five star rating was more out of the hopefulness associated with the book. Hopefulness that the world isn't really going to hell in a handbasket, and hopeful that the mass generalizations and questionable analysis of facts/statistics had a firm foundation.
Taleb spares no one, ripping professions, beliefs, jobs, and people—by name—apart. Especially Steven Pinker, Reads like the Burn Book from Mean Girls.
Taleb spares no one, ripping professions, beliefs, jobs, and people—by name—apart. Especially Steven Pinker, whom he calls out more than twice.
Highly offensive, I found this book a riotous good time, hilarious, and razor sharp.
This ended up being one of my favorite books of 2018, completed on December 31st.
I will read this one again next year, for, as Taleb points out:
"... learning is rooted in repetition and convexity, meaning that the reading of a single text twice is more profitable than reading two different things once, provided of course that said text has some depth of content."
"Extending such logic, we can show that much of what we call 'belief' is some kind of background furniture for the human mind, more metaphorical than real. It may work as therapy."
"Give me a few lines written by any man and I will find enough to get him hung" goes the saying attributed to Richelieu, Voltaire, Talleyrand (a vicious censor during the French revolution phase of terror), and a few others."
"The IYI (Intellectual Yet Idiot) joins a club to get travel privileges; if he is a social scientist, he uses statistics without knowing how they are derived (like Steven Pinker and psycholophasters in general); when in the United Kingdom, he goes to literary festivals and eats cucumber sandwiches, taking small bites at a time; he drinks red wine with steak (never white); he used to believe that dietary fat was harmful and has now completely reversed himself (information in both cases is derived from the same source); he takes statins because his doctor told him to do so; he fails to understand ergodicity, and, when explained to him, he forgets about it soon after; he doesn't use Yiddish words even when talking business; he studies grammar before speaking a language; he has a cousin who worked with someone who knows the Queen; he has never read FrédéricDark, Libanius Antiochus, Michael Oakeshott, John Gray, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ibn, Battuta, Saadia Gaon, or Joseph de Maistre; he has never gotten drunk with Russians; he never drinks to the point where he starts breaking glasses (or, preferably, chairs); he doesn't even know the difference between Hecate and Hecuba (which in Brooklyn's is 'can't tell sh**t from shinola'); he doesn't know that there is no difference between 'pseudointellectual' and 'intellectual' in the absence of skin in the game; he has mentioned quantum mechanics at least twice in the past five years in conversations that had nothing to do with physics."...more
Middle of the road: Elitist, untenable, often contradictory analysis of generalized (/dubious and cherry picked) "facts." Yet you are bombarded (/bMiddle of the road: Elitist, untenable, often contradictory analysis of generalized (/dubious and cherry picked) "facts." Yet you are bombarded (/beat over the head) with so many "positive" facts, that you must admit, the world is not going to hell in a hand basket.
This book, isn't bad per se, and if you're not paying too close attention (and don't mind a little authorial hypocrisy), it can also be inspiring and uplifting. Yes, the news is mostly doom and gloom—that's what sells. Yes, the world is improving ... in SOME respects (species extinction and declining environmental factors are ignored, and views on climate change are specious).
If you're easily taken in by lots of numbers that appear to prove a point, you'll love this book. Bill Gates and Obama both loved it, MUST be good, right?
*record scratch*
Upon closer inspection, the stars start to fall away. You don't have to read between the lines however, to get the feeling you are being talked down to, or condescended upon. Oh, you didn't know this obscure fact? Simpleton! In fact, this book almost reads like an auto-boast-ography of Hans Rosling's life. Good for him! He has definitely achieved a lot in his life, I just didn't realize all of it was so applicable to understanding how much better the world is today. Rosling injects jarring personal anecdotes, accomplishments, and experiences into the book, working hard to draw correlations with more general facts and statistics.
Rosling spends a large portion of the book telling us what we don't know, and how we, and the rest of the world are wrong. Fair enough. But he argues that most facts and numbers are not valid because of their averageness and flimsy deductions—then proceeds to provide a myriad of stats and averages, that are also ... *wait for it* ... average and vague!
Yes, the world has made improvements. Some of these are covered. I'm not sure I buy all of his associations, and what he interprets from various data sets. It is still speculation, even coming from Rosling.
The note from the children at the end of the book was touching, discussing their father, Hans's death and the project of the book they embarked on together. Endearing.
There are bright spots in this book, no doubt. There is also a lot of repetition, and self-referential content—it would have benefitted from some serious editing. If I hadn't read Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress only last month, I may have enjoyed this more. Reading them so close together made it seem doubly, or triply repetitive. While Pinker presented his case in more sweepingly philosophical terms, Rosling presents an ample supply of numbers, graphs, and charts—albeit with somewhat questionable interpretations.
Taking the advice given in this very book, we have to be skeptical of all numbers and their purported meanings. Mixed in among the stats, and therefore appearing *somewhat* more stalwart, Factfulness also employs a lot of common sense and general platitudes.
Summary:
Taken with a grain of salt, and allowance for a dying man (/narcissist)'s reflection of life achievements, this book is an adequate reminder that a) we can't trust the news or numbers, and b) things aren't all bad.
Basic applied statistics skewed to illustrate the author's point and dubbed: "factfulness" (aka, a circus of facts). Nothing new here.
[From what I've read/heard, his TED Talks are much better.]...more
Although there's nothing exceptionally groundbreaking in this book, Scott Adams' personal touch, and unique perspective on standard self-help fare renAlthough there's nothing exceptionally groundbreaking in this book, Scott Adams' personal touch, and unique perspective on standard self-help fare renders this book quite enjoyable.
Never a big reader of Dilbert, I first became intrigued by Adams' story when he appeared on the Tim Ferriss podcast (great episode). Adams discussed his belief in affirmations and how he'd utilized them at various points in life.
That discussion alone was enough for me to put the book on my TBR list, but it wasn't until I came across this excellent article discussing 10 takeaways from the book—that I actually started reading it.
The portion on affirmations was one of my favorites, but there were many parts that were entertaining, informative, and good reminders. Adams was able to overcome several health issues, and admits part of his success was pure luck, but of course, a plan of attack and mindset play a huge role in life.
Systems, skills, energy and proper management can increase the odds of success tenfold. Adams even discussed giving up Diet Coke and becoming a vegetarian/pescatarian, which really struck home for me as I'm on day 13 with no Diet Coke, and a new attempt at vegetarianism.
Timing probably played a role in my appreciation for this book—however—if things like the power of affirmations and learning the strategies of successful people interest you at all, give this book a chance. ...more
*“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”*
My new mantra.
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor*“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.”*
My new mantra.
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.”
Hopefully, this book will help inspire me to not be so precious about writing. However, I'm still agonizing over the deadline I have tonight and am writing this review instead of finishing the article ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯...more
“Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history; that of women and power. Clever women, Euripides had warned hundreds of years “Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history; that of women and power. Clever women, Euripides had warned hundreds of years earlier, were dangerous.”
Forever enigmatic, Cleopatra captured my imagination from the moment I first learned about her life. To this day she remains shrouded in mystique, and constantly alluring—one of the most powerful women in history.
And yet, most of what we know is hearsay, speculation, and legend, thus rendering any attempt at a purely nonfiction account of her life a true Herculean task.
Stacy Schiff has done a commendable job cobbling sources, records, and rumors together into what is at best, an assumptive overview of a remarkable woman.
Endlessly entertaining this book is not bad, but the facts are so ... questionable, as even Schiff admits, that the narrative can seem convoluted at points.
Still, an engaging read on one of the most unique women of all time.
“The personal inevitably trumps the political, and the erotic trumps all: We will remember that Cleopatra slept with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony long after we have forgotten what she accomplished in doing so, that she sustained a vast, rich, densely populated empire in its troubled twilight in the name of a proud and cultivated dynasty. She remains on the map for having seduced two of the greatest men of her time, while her crime was to have entered into those same 'wily and suspicious' marital partnerships that every man in power enjoyed. She did so in reverse and in her own name; this made her a deviant, socially disruptive, an unnatural woman. To these she added a few other offenses. She made Rome feel uncouth, insecure, and poor, sufficient cause for anxiety without adding sexuality into the mix.”
“As incandescent as was her personality, Cleopatra was every bit Caesar's equal as a coolheaded, clear-eyed pragmatist, though what passed on his part as strategy would be remembered on hers as manipulation.”...more
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