Hans Rosling : Factfulness

Hans Rosling's Factfulness Test From His New Book | Questions & Answers

Last week, I bought this book and it’s really fun, though, I was sorry that I've just known that the writer of this book passed away Two years ago. Two years ago, l was happily reading his 10 TED talks and thinking that l wanted his son who also wrote this book with him to wear glasses like him. That time, he had become ill already. Thank you for writing and leaving the book for us. I could have 10 correct answers and it’s probably because l must have read his 10 TED talks, it’s said that the majority of people score worse than chimpanzees, though.

The book “Factfulness”  tells us that there are ten reasons why things are better than you think. It’s because we, humans, have 10 instincts thus we couldn't see our world right. Those are the gap, negativity, straight line, fear, size, generation, destiny, single, blame, and urgency instincts. Yes, I also think about the reason of blame always, however, even the media is wrong, it means to blame someone, the things are not solved.

After trying 13 questions, his countermeasure, “Rules of Thumb” must help us.

1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?
A. 20% B. 40% or C. 60%?

2. Where does the majority of the world population live?
A. Low income countries B. Middle income countries or C. High income countries?

3. In the last 20 years the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has?
A. almost doubled B. remained more or less the same or C. almost halved?

4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?
A. 50 years B. 60 years or C. 70 years?

5. There are 2 billion children in the world today aged 0-15 years old, how many children will there be in year 2100 according to the United Nations?
A. 4 billion B. 3 billion or C. 2 billion?

6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people, what is the main reason?
A. There will be more children aged below 15 B. There will be more adults aged 15-74 or C. There will be more very old people aged 75 and older?

7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last 100 years?
A. More than doubled B. Remained about the same or C. Decreased to less than half?

8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today, which options more accurately represents where they live?
A. 1 billion in Europe, 4 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America.
B. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 2 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America
or
C. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 2 billion in America?

9. How many of the world's 1 year old children today have been vaccinated against some diseases?
A. 20% B. 50% or C. 80%?

10. Worldwide, 30 year old men have spent 10 years in school on average, how many years have women of the same age spent in school?
A. 9 years B. 6 years or C. 3 years?

11. In 1996 tigers, giant pandas and black rhinos were all listed as endangered, how many of these three species are critically endangered today?
A. 2 of them B. 1 of them or C. none of them?

12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity?
A. 20% B. 50% or C. 80%?

13. Global climate experts believe that over the next 100 years the average temperature will on average?
A. get warmer B. remain the same or C. get colder?

My answers and comments about his questions

1, My answer was C and it’s correct.
In the TED talks, there are many stories that girls couldn’t go to school. However, it’s highly improving. I think that learning is really fine and it’ll make our lives comfortable.

2, My answer was A but it’s wrong.
I’d felt that the world was completely separated, though, many people continue working to change Low-income countries to Middle-income countries. The correct answer is B.

3, My answer was C and it’s correct.
This is the happy news, though, over  600 million people are still struggling with extreme poverty. We have to do something for them.

4, My answer was C and it’s correct.
We have to thank for medical development. Children and elder people can be protected.

5, My answer was C and it’s correct. When women couldn't receive better education and they feel that their babies might not survive, they try to give birth babies a lot. It’s improving.

6, My answer was B and it’s correct.
Unfortunately, many humans can't live over one hundred yet. It’s said that it’ll take about 2 hundred years and it might become eternal life.

7, My answer was C and it’ correct.
In the world, various media always announces a big number of deaths from natural disasters, though, many people’s lives are improving and they started having power and skills to protect their lives.

8, My answer was A and it’s correct.
I've known that in China and India, one billion people live in and in Asia, there are many countries where over 1000 million people live in. For example, Japan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan. and so on. In Africa, probably, the country where over 1000 million people live in will be only Nigeria and 3000 million people live in America. These reasons led me to the correct answer.

9, My answer was A but it's wrong.
I thought too much that in our world, many severe infectious diseases were no longer exist and vaccines wouldn't be necessary. This is a wrong answer, cheaper vaccines, the costs of transport and preservation and so on are improving thus many children become able to receive better vaccinations. The correct answer is C

10, My answer was  A and it's correct.
This question is similar to the question of No.1. In the TED talks, there are many stories that girls couldn’t go to school, however, it’s highly improving. However, it shows that men and women are not equal and it makes me sad. I think that we have to continue taking actions.

11, My answer was C and it's correct.
Although I forget the reason why three species are critically endangered, none of them becomes today. The science is improving, isn't it? However, we have to know where those species are and whether they are critically endangered or not. It'll lead to important actions.

12, My answer was C and it's correct.
Many media announce that there are people who couldn't access to electricity exaggeratedly, though, it's improving.

13, My answer was C but it's wrong.
The question is the easiest and many people have the correct answer more than other questions, though I was mistaken. ahahaha.
I've read some books that said that the glacial period will come and humans couldn't live on earth like the glacial period coming and dinosaur died in the past. However, it'll take time, it's not the next 100 years but it might be the next 1000 years.

We must have many wrong answers. The writers give us “Rules of Thumb” not to do instinctively. The instincts that we have to know are the gap, negativity, straight line, fear, size, generation, destiny, single, blame, and urgency instincts.

Rules of Thumb
I, The Gap Instinct
We believe only about one data. We have to think about one date where the majority is located.
2, The Negativity Instinct
People have a tendency to see only negative news. We need to know the part of improvement.
3, The Straight line Instinct
We have wrong impression that all lines in graphs will go straight. We have to imagine where lines bend.
4, The Fear Instinct
We have a fear that risks definitely never happen thus we make mistakes.
5, The Size Instinct
Things have tendencies to be exaggerated. We have to know the size correctly.
6, The Generation Instinct
It means that we think that all patterns are the same.
7, The Destiny Instinct
So far, there are 24 hours in the day, a turtle couldn’t walk faster, and humans have wrong impressions. Ahahaha
8, The Single Perspective Instinct
We think that our one big knowledge or tool is useful always. driving a nail with a hammer is useful, though, fixing walls with a hammer won’t be possible. There must be other solutions.
9, The Blame Instinct
Even though we blame someone, the problems are not solved. We have to see what system made that possible.
10, The Urgency Instinct
Anxious decisions and action cause other problems. We always think that it’s urgency.


My conclusion is that our world is always changing and our learning have to be continuing forever, and it’ll lead to creating our better world. We have to do it.

Casey Gerald : Embrace your raw, strange magic

Casey Gerald at TED Salon: Belonging  (transcript)
Embrace your raw, strange magic
Summary
I don’t like the words: being in the raw. It’s because I was taught that enduring and not saying what you want were very important for living. Thus I have thought that being in the raw is selfish.
Furthermore, I was taught that miracles came to you by your endeavor also and I sometimes feel that a miracle happened and I think that it must have come to me by my endeavor and enduring.
However, I didn't notice, I seem to say that I should have done many things often.
I don't know that I think that I should endeavor and endure more or endeavoring and enduring are severe thus I think that I want to be in the raw unconsciously, so even though there is one matter there, there are many feelings and thoughts there. It can not compare.

The speaker is an author who has various backgrounds that he is a black man, graduate from a famous University, his childhood  was hard and so on and then he's decided to tell people that he is gay.
One big matter there, there are many feelings and thoughts there. It might lead to failure, though, like strange magic happening, he is succeeding so far and it might be better to be in the raw.

Words in this story

echelon /ech-e-lon/noun/ unit, force, corps, echelon, element

obedience /o·be·di·ence/noun/ act of obeying,condition of being obedient and disciplined, submission

repression /noun/ control, restraint, governing

despise /verb/ hate

dispose /verb/ lean,

endure /verb/ endurance /noun/ endurable /adj/ bear

endeavor /verb,noun/ effort

Anita Collins : How playing an instrument benefits your brain

Anita Collins at TED-Ed  (transcript)
How playing an instrument benefits your brain
Summary
Technology now helps a study of the brain and this time, by scientists turning from listeners to instrument players, the experiment that how playing an instrument benefits your brain was carried out. It showed that playing music was the brain's equivalent of a full-body workout and multiple areas of the brain could process complicated information astonishingly fast at one time. Playing an instrument seems to most strengthen brain working so far.
It affects your cognitive function and even neural processing, your multiple brain areas are strengthening.

Words in this story
interplay /noun/ the way in which two or more things have an effect on each other.

Christopher Warner : What is verbal irony?

Christopher Warner at TED-Ed  (transcript)
What is verbal irony?
Summary
The meaning of the words seems to change depending on the circumstances. It turns those words into not only irony but also sarcasm. It’s blurry because it’s not good if people understand clearly.
Thus the words sometimes show the true, though, it sometimes shows the opposite of what you mean seems to be irony, and verbal irony seems to include sarcasm sometimes.

How about the following?
“You really work hard!”
1, Compliments and it’s true.
2, If you are told when you don’t work is irony because it’s the opposite.
3, If you are told when you don’t have better results, you work, though. It’s probably sarcastic!

Thus it must be difficult to be used and understand, mustn't it? OMG!
You will lose weight! You are beautiful!

Words in this story
sarcasm /noun/ the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
sarcastic /adj/ marked by or given to using irony in order to mock or convey contempt.
raging / tense, violent, fierce,
blurry /adj/ weak, hazy

Betsy Schwarmat : Why should you listen to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"?

Betsy Schwarm at TED-Ed  (transcript)
Why should you listen to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”?
Summary
Why should we listen to Vivaldi's “Four Seasons”?
I thought that the reason was only that the melodies at first hearing appeared later again, however, there were many reasons. It has to be offered readily and accessible entertainment to listeners and has the easily and famously understandable title and stories to tell. Furthermore, the music and stories have to be able to synchronize to imagine soon. The big idea is that one violin can gather all listeners’ ears and eyes and Its violinist seems to be a young student who is expected in the future. Vivaldi’s music is thought not only for listeners but also players' careers. Thus those will be inheriting.

Words in this story
synchronize /verb/ cause to occur or operate at the same time or rate.
readily /adv/ gladly happily eagerly, without hesitation or reluctance; willingly.

Jeffrey Kluger : The sibling bond

Jeffrey Kluger at TEDxAsheville  (transcript)
The sibling bond
Summary

The speaker is a writer who has published a book: The Sibling Effect.
He explains and tells many examples and then the conclusion that he has arrived is that brothers and sisters aren’t the sine qua non of a happy life. Plenty of adult sibling relationships are fatally broken and need to be abandoned for the sanity of everybody involved.

This is just our current world which is not making the most of the sibling bonds so it must start our disorder. We always choose something that is easy and we don’t fix anything that is fixable. The result is this.
l think that the message from the speaker is that…
Is it our best thing, even if we record our gene? Furthermore, designer babies will be standard and women won’t give birth to their babies gradually in the near world. We won’t see more the true sibling bond.

Words in this story
the sine qua non /noun/ an indispensable and essential action
fatally /adv/ ultimately. lethally, deadly, mortally
conclusion /noun/ decision, finding, resolution

Martin Danoesastro : What are you willing to give up to change the way we work?

Martin Danoesastro at TED@BCG  (transcript)
What are you willing to give up to change the way we work?
Summary
I think that the article used very kind words, though, this is surely the biggest problem that we face now. It's that we will lose our job and we won't know what to do because of technology growing. For example, jobs of acceptance and driving will be done by robots.

A company continues hiring those people while ignoring costs and technology growth has no meaning. 1)
Employees have to do other jobs 2) and leaders who give directions to subordinates have to control those robots or have to do themselves many things that robots can't do. 3)

Everyone has to give up something and they have to change the way. The most difficult things to change is our own behavior autonomously.  We have to respond to change.

P.S.
Current Japanese condition is certainly this that no one gives up anything and no one does anything autonomously.
Governments continue to protect their own positions while using citizens' taxes, companies can't cut labor costs, leaders do nothing, employees want to chooes jobs but there is no job, elder people say that they worked hard in the past thus they need more pension.  Those are out of date and we have to change our own behavior.

Words in this story
autonomy /noun/ independence, freedom

David Eagleman : Can we create new senses for humans?

David Eagleman at TED2015  (transcript)
Can we create new senses for humans?
Summary
I couldn't understand the story until l watch it.
In it, new senses have had new interfaces, for example, it’s like a sensory vest that the speaker has been wearing. It can send you wearing it some information that people in previous unseen by its vibrations.

It’s not our senses that are hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling thus it can be said that a new sense has been created for humans.

In fact, we, humans, aren’t seeing, hearing, and smelling most of the action that’s going on, our brain is surprisingly not hearing or seeing anything, all things that the brain sees are electrochemical signals and the brain figures out how to use the signals just fine.

OMG, you know, the brain has just used signals, though, it's really nice, it can be used very well if a new sense is created. Our senses can be expanding so from now, a new generation where we can feel unseen something will come.

Words in this story
impoverish /verb/ make poor
expansion /noun/ enlargement, increase, development
substitution /noun/ replacement, surrogate
interface /noun/  a point where two systems, subjects, organizations, etc., meet and interact.

Matthew Winkler : What makes a hero?

Matthew Winkler at TED-Ed  (transcript)
What makes a hero?
Summary
I don’t particularly want to be a hero, though, I thought that l loved this story because the story was about challenges and our lives.
Soon, I’ve thought that where the place I'm in is. It’s shown which are Adventure, Assistance, Departure, Trials, Approach, Crisis, Treasure, Result, Return, New Life, Resolution, and Status Quo.

Becoming a hero means that we challenge our own life. Big or small, successes or failure, and being famous won’t be related. We have to know for our life that in the cave we fear to enter lies the treasure we seek.

Listen for our call to adventure, accept the challenge, have an experience that transforms us, recover, do it again, conquer our fear and claim the treasure we seek. This is our life. In our life, we can be a hero. Its repetition makes us a hero.

Words in this story
lay laid laid /  he laid his bag on the desk.
lie lay lain lying /  he lay down on his bed. A letter lying on the desk was written by him yesterday.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica at Rio +20 Summit

                                                        (In Spanish with English subtitles) (article)

Address by Uruguayan president Jose Mujica at Rio +20 Summit
Human happiness and the environment
Summary
From the article, l felt how stupid we, humans, are.
I’ve heard that the president of Uruguay who lives in a mountain alone but in a small house made of woods is the poorest president in the world, though, the poorest people are us who couldn't think about anything that he thinks.

The world has this beautiful and great meeting every year, though, people continue seeking economic development, buying a lot of stuff, using energies, and saying that we have to tackle the problem of the environment.

We have to realize that we are in a vicious cycle where we think that economic development and having much money and stuff make us happy. The world always shows that the number of GDP is important. The simple question is that its enormous consumption can solve the problem of the environment.  This must be a political problem thus the cycle can’t be solved and the environment isn’t improved.

We, humans, have to think about our own way of thoughts and life for our true happiness first.

Words in this story
wretched /adj/ (of a person) in a very unhappy or unfortunate state.
vicious /adj/ deliberately cruel or violent.

Ray Kurzweil : The accelerating power of technology

Ray Kurzweil at TED2005  (transcript)
The accelerating power of technology
Summary
We, humans, become tired when we continue doing something, our growth is slow, and we grow little by little every day.
However, by using technology, our work can continue being done without taking a break, and then it's not linear but it becomes exponential.
Exponential is not double, not two times and not three times. It's power, squared, cubed, to the power four and it can be continuing.

Technology can be growing exponential, the power is accelerating and exploding. The first step took ten of thousands of years, for example, stone tools, fire, the Genome Project, the evolution of DNA, the PC, the web, cell phones, the communication revolution, counting, and those are the evolution of our species, though, those will be done in the last few years.
 It means that with working mental models of humans, that are explanations of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world, technology is growing exponential.

However, it doesn't mean that we don't need to do anything or many things that we did were wasted. It's acceleratingly growing with peril.  We have to have the will to apply those to the right problem. I think that especially, the problem of lacking energy is important because people are optimistic.

Words in this story
exponential /adj/ of or expressed by a mathematical exponent.
decentralization /noun/
decentralize /verb/ transfer (authority) from central to local government.
nanobot /noun/ theoretical microscopic robot that will be built using nanotechnology
peril /noun/ danger, risk, hazard

Sheryl Sandberg : So we leaned in ... now what?

Sheryl Sandberg at TEDWomen 2013  (transcript)
So we leaned in … now what?
Summary
“Lean in” is a title of a book that was written by Sheryl Sandberg who was the chief operating officer of Facebook in 2013. The word “Lean” means to depend, though, “Lean in” means to proactively take charge of a situation and to be bold in exerting one's will in a situation.
Furthermore, it’s to shift one's weight forward or to lean forward or towards something. The most powerful meaning seems to be taking a step forward.
The speaker is a great woman leader, though, she couldn’t say “woman”. It means that the world be said for a long time that men and women should be equal, though, the situation hasn’t still been changed after she stood on a previous TED stage. And then she published its book, create groups to be able to discuss the problem of woman. At last, people and some men started realizing. They said that they thought that there was no discrimination but they were good at it. However, it’s just hidden and it can't be just told about. By this book “Lean in”, many people started realizing. Exactly, “Lean in” happened. People started taking a step forward about the problem. We all need to do a lot more leaning in.

Words in this story
exert /verb/ cause, exercise, use

Chris Anderson : Technology's long tail

Chris Anderson at TED2004  (transcript)
Technology's long tail
Summary
About 15 years passed since the story was told. Now, WiFi has become for free if you go to McDonald or other cafes or stations in Japan. It can’t be thought by me because it’s expensive in the past thus I had to send email quickly and I couldn't talk with other countries slowly by calling when I started using the computer. It’s that the speaker is surprisingly right because he had told us about it 15 years ago.
The speaker tells us viable technology of in the near future. It’s that there are four key stages that are setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and becoming ubiquitous.
He is a person who has popularized The words "Long tail" by his book.
It's a new business strategy. The concept in his book “The Long Tail” is that why the future of business is selling less of more.
It's because the communications are for free. The companies will be able to find a customer who lives in very far places. It can be possible until the last one because communications are for free.

I’ve read the book that was really interesting.

Words in this story
viable /adj/ capable of working successfully, feasible. possible
elaborate /verb/ develop or present (a theory, policy, or system) in detail.

Ai-jen Poo : The work that makes all other work possible

Ai-jen Poo at TEDWomen 2018  (transcript)
The work that makes all other work possible
Summary
In this article, the work is the domestic workers doing. It’s difficult for them to receive fair wages because your nannies, wife, and children must do the work that is the elder-care, house clean and other chores. If people hire them, they sometimes never pay and among them, there are children who can’t go to school.

The speaker helps those children to escape, she suggests that domestic workers are not slaves, they also have the right to get proper benefits, to go to school, and not to be sold.
If in your home, the domestic worker is no longer working, you can’t go to your work. It’s become the title. Do you hire them with love and moral choices?
We need to reconsider the domestic work and workers because they do housework thus we can go to work.

P.S.
I have something that I’m really worried about in this article. It’s that the speaker mentioned about the children reaching the US-Mexico border. She said that they are separated from their parents, though, the story and this problem aren’t related about housework. It’s because those children must go there with their parents deliberately. Parents who don’t want to raise children or can’t do it know that children can eat there. Trump administration uses much money for that and governments go to the countries where those parents had lived in to tell migrants.
“From your counties, many immigrants come to borders, rehabilitation centers were built, and countries should cooperate” However, it continues neglecting, though, the media that doesn't like Trump said that he separated children from their parents. Each country should protect own country’s citizens.

Words in this story
domestic /adj/ of or relating to the running of a home or to family relations.