CROW Nontes on Hans Rosling "Factfulness" Intro & Chap 1

May 23, 2019

Present: Adam, Marianne, Jen, Ben, Nancy, Gail, Justine, Connie, Levi

1.       Warm Up: Adam: has an exciting MRI opportunity, with one half of a brain serving as a control for the other half – cool!

2.       Intro – Why I  Like the Circus

a.       What we think is impossible may have more to do with what we think than what is possible, e.g. sword swallowing

                                                   i.      Yes: per Jen, a cross section of the esophagus is a slender oval… but still not easy

b.       To change our thinking we have to question our assumptions

                                                   i.      And a little vaudeville goes a long way

c.       Most people do worse than random chance in answering questions about global poverty, education, health; not as bad with respect to climate change

                                                   i.      They consistently select answers that are more dismal rather than positive

                                                 ii.      Is Hans Rosling picking things to measure that show up positively (other than his climate change exception)? Counter examples:

1.       Obesity

2.       Opioid-related deaths (but just in the U.S.?)

3.       Racial tension / polarities of ethnic or country origin

a.       There are some bad problems, the world-wide ones are more significant

b.       Overall, there is much more going right than going wrong

c.       What is the agent of change? Ben: technology changes outcomes

d.       Intro, it's about being humble and open minded

e.       Sword swallowing as an example of assumptions we make and what is actually possible

3.       Chapter 1

a.       The Gap Instinct

                                                   i.      We divide the world into two, them and us

1.       This is an ancient characteristic of humans and how they behave – with each other

                                                 ii.      We don't think the two halves touch, or that members can move between groups

b.       There used to be two divisions in world population: developing and developed. Now there are four levels: $1 a day, $4 a day, $16 a day and more than $16 a day.

                                                   i.      Today, instead of 50% of the world is hungry, only 9% is, that means that our solutions are working.

c.       Comparisons usually leave out the lack of divisions in our world population. How to tell:

                                                   i.      Difference between averages

1.       This is a real, but not complete, picture

2.       We think in binary terms; the differences are multi-factorial that make the difference hard to understand. 

                                                 ii.      Difference between extremes

                                               iii.      The view from up here

d.       However this perspective does not account for systemic differences. Men and women may overlap the distribution of their incomes but none the less men are systematically paid more than women. This affects their health and their opportunities and their children's health and opportunities.