The book has two themes... First, the world is improving at a far better rate than we'd expect. Gone are the days of first-world excess vs. third-world poverty. The majority of the world lives somewhere between the two.
Most of the world has access to electricity. More than 80% of all children are vaccinated. Since vaccines must be kept refrigerated, that means the electricity, maintenance and support to for this refrigerated network, must be healthy and world wide.
Why don't we know this? Why do we think the world is crappier than it is? Rosling covers this...
1. Gap... Things are rarely A. vs. B. They are a continuum between A & B. What is this continuum like?
2. Negativity. We expect, and look for bad news. We don't pay attention to good news or boring news.
3. Straight lines-- We expect growth to follow straight lines. It rarely does. The curve will bend.
4. Fear-- When something scares us we over guard against us. We have to remember that Risk = Danger * Exposure. If we are not exposed to a danger, we should not trust our fear.
5. Size-- Judge things in proportion. A single number is rarely useful. What was that number last year? Two years ago? How big is that number in proportion to the rest of the problem? The rest of the world?
6. Generalization-- we put things in categories. This may not be true. What are the differences within a category? What are the similarities across category?
7. Destiny-- Things change. Slow change is still change. Statistics from 10 years ago can be very different today.
8. Don't use a single tool to analyze your problems. Develop a toolbox.
9. Blame-- Resist pointing your finger. We stop thinking about root causes when we can blame someone. We really need to go beyond that to deeply understand a problem
10. Urgency. Things are rarely so urgent that you need to react quickly and dramatically. Take small steps. Validate.
Rosling suggests that many First world companies are missing business opportunities in the rising middle class world. The first world population is growing much more slowly than the middle-world.
