Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Don’t claim expertise beyond your field: be humble about what you don’t know. Be aware too of the limits of the expertise of others.

Hammers and nails. If you are good with a tool, you may want to use it too often. If you have analyzed a problem in depth, you can end up exaggerating the importance of that problem or of your solution. Remember that no one tool is good for everything. If your favorite idea is a hammer, look for colleagues with screwdrivers, wrenches, and tape measures. Be open to ideas from other fields.

The blame instinct is the instinct to find a clear, simple reason for why something bad has happened. I had this instinct just recently when

The blame instinct is the instinct to find a clear, simple reason for why something bad has happened.

It seems that it comes very naturally for us to decide that when things go wrong, it must be because of some bad individual with bad intentions.

The blame instinct makes us exaggerate the importance of individuals or of particular groups.

To understand most of the world’s significant problems we have to look beyond a guilty individual and to the system.

resist blaming any one individual or group of individuals for anything. Because the problem is that when we identify the bad guy, we are done thinking.

Factfulness is … recognizing when a scapegoat is being used and remembering that blaming an individual often steals the focus from other possible explanations and blocks our ability to prevent similar problems in the future.

Look for causes, not villains. When something goes wrong don’t look for an individual or a group to blame. Accept that bad things can happen without anyone intending them to.

The call to action makes you think less critically, decide more quickly, and act now.

The call to action makes you think less critically, decide more quickly, and act now. Relax. It’s almost never true. It’s almost never that urgent, and it’s almost never an either/or.

When people tell me we must act now, it makes me hesitate. In most cases, they are just trying to stop me from thinking clearly.

Fear plus urgency make for stupid, drastic decisions with unpredictable side effects.

Factfulness is … recognizing when a decision feels urgent and remembering that it rarely is.

Factfulness is … recognizing when a decision feels urgent and remembering that it rarely is. To control the urgency instinct, take small steps.

Take a breath. When your urgency instinct is triggered, your other instincts kick in and your analysis shuts down. Ask for more time and more information.

Insist on the data. If something is urgent and important, it should be measured.

Insist on the data. If something is urgent and important, it should be measured. Beware of data that is relevant but inaccurate, or accurate but irrelevant. Only relevant and accurate data is useful.

measles, so that we don’t have to see