Read with Kay discussion

Starting the thread on our first pick: Factulness by Hans Rosling.

This is an open forum, so feel free to share any interesting finds, thoughts, and questions with the group!

Recommended Format for Questions: Reference to specific chapter(s)/context + Your thoughts + Question

Recommended Format for Responses: Reference to specific people & their questions/responses + Your thoughts + Questions (if any)

+ Bonus Resource: The playlist of Hans Rosling's TED talks which includes the one featuring the world health chart at the beginning of the book

Where: Chapter 2: The Negativity Instinct.
What: Rosling exemplifies 16 Bad Things Decreasing & 16 Good Things Increasing. I observed that the # of new music recordings released & scientific articles published exponentially increased whereas the # of plane crash deaths and expensive solar panels exponentially decreased in the 20th/21st century.
Thoughts: Given that all of these are products of creativity & innovation--which people can pursue/achieve only when they have satisfied their most fundamental needs--I thought their rates of change really spoke to how rapidly the living conditions have improved. At the same time, I wonder if select countries are the strongest drivers of global improvement in creativity & innovation. I have my assumptions but they aren't backed by any data so I'm hoping to look into them further.
Question to Group: What (if any) improvements caught your eye in this chapter?

In response to Kay’s question on “What (if any) improvements caught your eye in this chapter?”, the part where the book mentions girls’ education really caught my eyes. I considered myself to be “interested” or “passionate” about the idea of getting all girls in school when reading related books/articles. But then I realized was emotionally caught up by the negativity and hopelessness surrounding the issue that I never attempted to search for the actual stats which then led me to not knowing about the improvement already made. And so my biggest take away from this chapter is that there should be no conflict between “celebrating this progress and continuing to fight for more”.