Uncommon Knowledge: the Economist Explains

by Tom Standage

The world can be an amazing place if you know the right questions to ask:

How did carrots become orange? What's stopping us from having a four-day week? How can we remove all the broken bits of satellite from orbit? If everything is so terrible, why is the global suicide rate falling?

The keen minds of the Economist love to look beyond everyday appearances to find out what really makes things tick. In this latest collection of The Economist Explains, they have gathered together the juiciest fruits of their never-ending quest for answers. For an uncommonly interesting read, take a peek at some Uncommon Knowledge - and pass it on! The world only gets more amazing when discoveries are shared.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Economics, History, Popular Science

228 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 7, 2019

About the author

Tom Standage is a journalist and author from England. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked as a science and technology writer for The Guardian, as the business editor at The Economist, has been published in Wired, The New York Times, and The Daily Telegraph, and has published five books, including The Victorian Internet[1][2]. This book explores the historical development of the telegraph and the social ramifications associated with this development. Tom Standage also proposes that if Victorians from the 1800s were to be around today, they would be far from impressed with present Internet capabilities. This is because the development of the telegraph essentially mirrored the development of the Internet. Both technologies can be seen to have largely impacted the speed and transmission of information and both were widely criticised by some, due to their perceived negative consequences.

Standage has taken part in various key media events. He recently participated in ictQATAR's "Media Connected" forum for journalists in Qatar, where he discussed the concept of technology journalism around the world and how technology is expected to keep transforming the world of journalism in the Middle East and all around the world.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little weird. Some chapters have interesting if useless information as in why Australians are Divided over Kangeroos. The estimated population of vegetation-munching kangaroos in a desert land is 47M and their meat is good to eat and hides make good leather, so one set of people say culls are a good thing. Ecologists say no, the population (from space surveys) is much less than that and in balance. Ordinary people say that every time there is a drought they all die off anyway.

Other chapters are legitimately interesting and important such as Why India Avoids Alliances. This is because it doesn't need them, everyone is courting what is going to be a major economic player, China and Australia, so why come down on one side when you can play sides against the middle? Delhi, which is really rich, wants to split off and become it's own state and make it's own arrangements with foreign powers (it isn't going to happen).

There are things you never thought of, couldn't care less about and kind of wonder why the author even bothered to research it: "How Smog Affects Spending in China". Others are so obvious, I shook my head, "Why Expensive Weddings are a Bad Idea" (I don't think you would agree if you were a florist, caterer or supplier of insanely expensive wedding dresses). Why mooncakes are an indicator of the the Chinese economy.

There is a chapter on California being too big and how it might split into two (or three) states. It's never going to happen but is an interesting idea.

There are completely eye-opening (not in a good way) chapters. How many Americans believe in ghosts -47%. 15% say they have seen one. (67% of Americans believe in aliens, 20% think they have visited Earth and at least 50 cases of meeting aliens have been seriously investigated. But then 31% of Americans are Creationists of one kind or another). How a normal American birth costs as much as a Royal birth in the UK. Which countries have the most gun deaths - India, El Salvador, Guatemala and Venezuela. (Venezuela sounds unattractive from almost all angles except the beauty of it's landscape).

There are lots of categories, some more interesting than others, but although figures are given, there are very few solutions suggested to problems.

Don't give this book to someone to read on the plane. It's the sort of book where the person will keep nudging you and saying, "Hey, you've gotta here this," which is really annoying when you want to read your own. It's definitely one for the bathroom shelf. Solid 4 stars.
___________

Imprisoned for being a rape victim. Statistics, punishments, and honor killings This made my heart ache. In Mauritania over 40% of the female prisoners are there for having had sex outside marriage. Most of them have been raped. Some of them are children and pregnant.

Most rapes there, Pakistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia etc are not reported as the women are essentially admitting their guilt in having had sex outside marriage and will be punished by whipping, death by stoning or imprisoning, or by honour killings (of the victim no less!) by the family which is more or less condoned by the State with little or no punishment (gay men are, but much more rarely, victims of this crime too). Jordan, Palestinian territories "The Palestinian Authority, using a clause in the Jordanian penal code still in effect in the West Bank as of 2011, exempted men from punishment for killing a female relative if she has brought dishonor to the family." Honor Killing I would imagine that law, or variations of it, exist in all the countries that punish rape victims.

Thanks to the spread of Islamism across the Muslim world at the time of the Iranian revolution, the last quarter of the 20th century saw a rise in the application of zina laws in several Muslim-majority countries.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as I can tell this is simply a collection of articles recycled from The Economist magazine. I don’t normally read The Economist, although when I have leafed through that magazine the articles are of a similar size and style as these. Each takes up only a page or two, which makes it a very easy read.

Taken as a whole this didn’t really grab me. The articles cover a wide range of subjects, but there were probably no more than a dozen that really engaged my curiosity. I didn’t actively dislike the others, I just didn’t think they were particularly interesting. With some exceptions I also doubted whether the articles could really claim to represent “uncommon knowledge” to anyone who was interested enough to read the book in the first place.

The articles that I did enjoy tempted me towards 3 stars, but in truth I found the bulk of the book to be just OK and no more than that.

[Teck Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good distillation of events and trends that surfaced in the past decade

[Venky · Rating 4 out of 5]

How carrots became orange (orange here does not refer to the fruit, but the colour) or why Australians stand so divided over Kangaroos, are not questions which we, during the course of tiding over our daily travails, pause to ponder over. Tom Standage, a journalist, author (his books include “A History of the World in Six Glasses”; An Edible History of Humanity; and The Turk: The Life and Times of the Eighteenth Century Chess Player), and the deputy editor at The Economist, proposes to answer these and many other questions of a similar bent in the book “Uncommon Knowledge: The Economist Explains”. While a number of contributors have brought their heads together to churn up a list of heterogeneous and wide ranging questions, Mr. Standage essays the role of the editor.

True to its title, “Uncommon Knowledge” is an eclectic compendium of selected facts ranging from the bland to the bizarre. Divided into broader sections with imaginative headings such as ‘little known explanations to stretch your mind’, Globally curious: particular proclivities from around the world’; ‘Speaking geek: Science and Technology’ etc. “Uncommon Knowledge” is a bouquet of minuscule chapters each giving the reader a peek into a world brimming with peculiarities and characterized by oddities.

The book begins with a sprightly chapter that sets the theme for all those succeeding it. On the 18th of April, 2018 at a celebration that glorified the 50th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from Britain, its king Mswati III (who apparently has fifteen wives), made a startling announcement. He proclaimed that he was changing the name of his country to “eSwatini” since more often than not, people abroad were referring to his country as Switzerland.

While the usual suspects such as Climate Change and Global warming make their mandatory, albeit essential appearance in the book, other intriguing facets such as “Who owns what in space” make for some thought provoking reading. The book goes on to educate the reader that Luxembourg in 2017 earmarked 200 million Euros to invest in space mining companies. While we are informed that the world over the cost of violence against women, taking into consideration direct spending on counselling and health resources, as well as projections of lost productivity, adds up to a whopping 2% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we are also provided heartwarming assurance about a powerful new gene editing tool called CRISPRcas9. Gene drives based on CRISPRcas9, we are informed can be engineered to target specific bits of the chromosome and insert themselves seamlessly into the gap, thus ensuring a copy for every gamete. This novel technology may one day wipe out the scourge of Malaria.

India’s capital Delhi gains some publicity which it would do extremely well to avoid in future. “Dirty air kills some 30,000 of Delhi’s inhabitants a year – and that is a low estimate some doctors say, if you take account of effects as varied as higher rates of lung cancer, diabetes, premature births, and according to recent research, even autism.” However, even with a daily average level of suspended PM2.5 – fine dust – that is six times what the World Health Organisation stipulates to be the maximum safe concentration, Delhi does not possess the dirtiest air in the world. That inglorious distinction is the preserve of yet another city in India, Kanpur.

While India is battling a dangerous combination of smog and smoke, its restless neighbour China is coming perilously close to decimating the global donkey population. Yes, you read that right! Ejiao, a gelatin produced by boiling and refining donkey skin, and considered to be an elixir by the Chinese is the prime culprit for the vanishing beasts of burden. While the number of donkeys in China have fallen from 11 million in 1990 to 5 million in 2016, the donkey population in Botswana fell by 60% from 2011 to 2016, and a fifth in Lesotho. However, the poor donkey’s loss is the bald eagle’s gain. Once listed as an endangered species, the bald eagle, the very symbol of the United States of America, has again soared back into prominence. A raft of preservation laws has combined with the banning of chemicals such as DDT by the Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure that the number of nesting pairs of these majestic birds is more than just substantial.

Mr. Standage, brings to bear a refreshing and lively flavour of wacky and wicked humour to complement even facts that are somber. For example, in a Chapter titled, “Why The Mediterranean will eventually disappear”, – and in which extremely existential references are made to findings by scientists such as Christopher Scotese, (a geologist at the University of Texas) about the potential shrinking of the Atlantic, and an eventual collision of California with far-east Asia – a passage reads thus: “these scientists are in the enviable position of being able to say things that will never be disproved, as it is unlikely that humanity will be around to see the next super-continent form.”

Although concise in their sweep and crisp in their coverage, Chapters are supplemented with graphs, diagrams and charts to convey the primary message. Easy on the eye and bereft of verbiage, the narration is engaging and racy. A cross between an encyclopedia and a pocket book, “Uncommon Knowledge” is a veritable addition to any bookshelf of value. These byte sized jewels of information, in addition to perking up the interest of the reader and piquing her curiosity, also strive to open many windows behind which lie people, places and propositions about which having at least a fundamental knowledge is not just be advisable, but might soon become essential considering the pace at which our world is progressing.

By the way, China rents out its pandas because…

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was a though read. The stories were rather short (2 pages each), so only the surface of the topic was scratched. Given that the book is written rather objectively, which is quite "dry" to read, makes it quite difficult to get into a flow. I've learned some nice facts, but I've had more enjoyable books.

[Patrick Laverty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought on impulse at the airport, so didn’t really expect much from it; it still under-delivered.

[Otgonbayar Durvee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bunch of really interesting questions. Though, some answers dont make you feel satisfied.

[Adelyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, rather random collection of little facts, formatted as answers to “uncommon knowledge” questions posed by the editor. Starts off with a lovely little prologue encouraging the reader to think through the questions beyond what is explained in the book, which I thought was nice, and true enough I thought many of the answers were insufficiently expanded on. Possibly by design, to encourage further research into the topic, but I have to say it got frustrating after awhile. Most of the answers were just 2 pages long though, making this one ideal for on-the-go reading (which I did while travelling around).

It was a nice collection of questions, well curated so that there was not too much emphasis on any one element, though inevitably I engaged with some of the sections more than I did others. I thought the editing was also very good, not much technical language and I found it generally easy to follow. The use of graphs from The Economist was a nice touch, but they were often not well annotated and took a fair bit of time to figure out what they were trying to show, which I thought broke up the flow of reading in parts. 3.5 stars, as I did learn a lot of “uncommon knowledge” from this one, rounding down as I thought I didn’t enjoy it as much as I probably could have and on balance there were more questions that didn’t interest me than those that did.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

It only took me 3 attempts to finally finish the book after all these years, but I think that accurately reflects the level of engagement this book offers. Just difficult to get hooked all the way until the end

[Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect read if you don't have that much time. Little tidbits of information you never knew you were missing. This is exactly my thing - no regrets!

[Ingrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

gonna be honest, this was not what I expected: somehow I only saw it was produced by The Economist when it arrived, and as others have pointed out it seems like a collection of their articles.

it was quick reading, each 'chapter' only being two pages long. a lot of it was interesting, but that's about the strongest word I'd use.

some chapters were cool e.g. the correlation between rainfall and assassinations of Ancient Roman emperors. howeverrr, I admit I skipped one or two that were either of negligible interest to me (economics... again, I didn't know this was by The Economist, okay) or just straight up uncomfortable to read.

3 stars ☆☆☆

[Mija Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short book that’s great for when you’re traveling and want some quick entertainment.

It’s also a fun choice if you want to have a 'Joey moment' and pick up some random knowledge (remember the episode of Friends where he buys an encyclopedia for just one letter?) . 😁😂

It contains a lot of interesting questions and topics, but the answers aren’t all that satisfying. Still, it’s worth the read—you’ve got nothing to lose.

[Victor Churchill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small, easy to read book that you can either finish in a day or two or read on the go. This book touches on an immense variety of topics that are all freshly curated. A very pleasant light read for anyone looking to get some interesting and rather unusual information.

[Bassmh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Found myself skipping pages at the end.

[Emma]

DNFed as had to give book back to Library ages ago. Might get it back and finish it one day!

[Nicholas Chow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few interesting tidbits, but largely buried within a sea of other less-interesting bits. The book reads very much like a series of summarized Economist articles hastily grouped together (because it probably is).

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the generality of the information, it was expected that not every chunk of knowledge would be interesting. But a lot of it was. I didn't know that purple carrots were a thing, for example.
There's even a nigh on prophetic entry regarding 'Disease X', the name given to an unknown future disease that we must be on the lookout for, and prepare to defend against. It even talked of one of the methods for speeding up the vaccine creation process.

Some good food for thought here, presented in 2 page entries of mostly text but also graphs/charts.

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was interested by the first book ‘Seriously Curious’ my sister recommended to me. Did not find it, but found the sequel book ‘Uncommon Knowledge’.

Many trivial things i learned from this book. Even the smallest activities we do everyday unknowingly impacted greatly to global economy. Random topics are chosen and explained in bits, yet really unthinkable questions that are important to know what, why and how. Written by economist Tom Standage, everything is explained in great depth scientifically through many point of view (culture, politic, culture, demography, education, and more!) gives understandable answer to layman.

Some topics that based on historical references and readings are new and eye-opening. Nonetheless, some questions that answered using statistics are not conclusive and contradict from the fact.

For example on Why terrorists claim credit for some attacks but not others.
“Attacks on a very large scale are rare, and almost always occur in countries that are poor and authoritarian.”

What about the 9/11 incident? It happened in one of the richest country in the world. The writer used Blame Theory to support this conclusion, but it is not conclusive enough as it ignores the group psychological factor that also contributes the terrorism.

Overall, i am satisfied by this book, definitely will read the first book and the third book

[Giles Field · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to rate a book like this, published by the Economist as a book of facts and figures, rather than the Booker Prize winning fare I’ve recently read! Raced through it, having a great old time learning a phenomenal number of interesting bits and pieces on topics a page or two at a time. From the geo-political to the environment to the science and tech world, it was a ride! Pretty up to date at time of reviewing too (early 2020) which you don’t always find with print books, and if you’re gonna read I’d defs try and get to it before it all becomes obsolete.
No, it’s not a life-changing piece of literature but I feel all the better for reading it. I’m just praying some of that info can stay in my brain and potentially regurgitate itself at some dill or other that I might need to have it out with on the internet

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but it did leave me slightly unfulfilled. The book consists of a series of interesting short chapters (2-3 pages) about particular aspects of society with a focus on statistics and economics. It became clear fairly quickly that the shallow depth of the articles would work well in a magazine, but as a book would feel a bit limited. Perhaps this'll stimulate further interest, there were some quirky and intriguing aspects, I'll re-read it at some point, dip in to it, but... slightly disappointing. I wanted more depth - at times it was "Here's a weird statistic, and here's a graph - I'm barely going to explain *why* this odd fact is the case, however".

[James Sefton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very easy book to read too as it was a collection of different short article type ideas combined into chapters.

Did you know that China gifts its Pandas out and has being doing so since the 7th century. But as China has become more capitalist they have started charging countries instead of gifting bears. With the price being $50,000 a month in the 1980's. The Chinese argue that this is part of "guanxi" which is building relationships that establish deeper and more trusting bonds.
Some countries take issue with this and say the bears are exploited for diplomatic purposes. The rent from the bears is spent on conservation thanks to WWF pressure

[Vusi · Rating 1 out of 5]

1st Chapter threw me off

The first chapter about the reason Swaziland changed its name shows a lack of research by this author. That the native people of Swaziland have been calling their country eswatini ever since is lost in the authors quest to invent facts. A simple attempt to research the name change from swati people would've helped.

The tone is also off. You can tell that the author is obviously used to writing mainly for an American audience. Tried hard to make sense of the second chapter but failed.

If you're interested in a balanced world view on various subject this book may disappoint you.

[noa expósito · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally!!! Well, it was interesting but some articles were a bit random. Most of them taught me something but I have to admit that this is the kind of book that you read slowly, maybe one article everyday. But I started it and I couldn’t have another book shelved as reading, I wanted to have it as finished, so maybe I forced myself to read a bit. But it was nice, different to books I usually read. Also, I bought this in Geneva and I’ve never immediately read a book I’ve bought but I did with this one! :)

Also, this book is from 2019 and I could tell it was a bit old, also it mentioned pandemics once and I was like, foreshadowing…

[Abbie Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will finish this book as its quite a quick read with a few interesting facts and stats. I dislike in the section about ESG a specific recommendation is made to invest with a specific firm... As if they are the only place providing sound sustainable investments. There are plenty of these. Is this paid advertisement or biased? A complete shame, people recieve enough ads in daily life, let alone in their leisurely reading material now.

[Emilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book full of fascinating knowledge. I liked that there was a lot of uncommon knowledge (aka little known), and there were 1-2 page explanations for all these facts. That was just enough to give me context without bogging me down too much, as many such books do. In addition to be interesting, it was very well written. Great book to flip through or read, and definitely a must for anyone interested in what makes the world around them tick (or is looking to be a trivia master)

[Moa Sundberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

How I got to know that there is a shortage of vanilla and why it is getting harder to tell wether someone is dead...

Extraordinary things that few people know it says on the book cover. I would say it is some fun things, some unnecessary things and some really interesting things that some people know.

A good way to get updated about the world when in a different way than reading about current affairs and the news.

[Mark Major · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover promises more than the content delivers. The author promotes the ideology of their political agenda in a few sections; not enough to be irritating but enough to be noticeable. Honestly, just because it is 'uncommon knowledge,' it doesn't follow that it is necessarily interesting information. The book is suitable as a time-waster, nothing more. I was expecting more than I got.

[Evgenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not such a fascinating reading. Sure there are things that are interesting to find out about, but it didn’t really offer something different than reading the Economist magazine. Maybe a better categorization of the collection of articles to make better links between facts, would have made it more readable.

[Shine Zhou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers a wide range of topics. But I feel like the questions presented in this book are not explained well enough and some are even just hypothesis. Generally it describes questions or phenomenons well and triggers my curiosity but I am not thrilling about the short explanations given by the writer.

[Mohammad Islam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A frustrating book if you try to read every chapter, since what the author finds uncommon may not be interesting for you.

While I managed to learn about some interesting & uncommon information, I did skip the ones that felt boring for me, hence the 4 star. If the format didn't support skipping, I would have given 2 stars!