My brain says that sounds good, but I’m not sure how it will feel if I think statistically rather than by emotional impressions. In other words, we should be able to solve our problems and get what we want too. Then tell you to join a gym and learn to eat healthier with the rest of your meals. That will make happier each night, at least statistically. They also say that we can have more material progress if we learn to manage its costs.įor example, their philosophy might advise you to take the three pints of Ben & Jerry’s you’re eating now and divide them over seven days. What Pinker and Rosling are saying is we should feel good about progress even at the recognition of its cost. Would it help if you also saw statistics showing your weight had increased as you’ve eaten more ice cream? Does knowing you’re getting less healthy make you less hungry for ice cream? No, it doesn’t. By signing up you agree to our terms of use Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. However, it’s hard to feel that when the news is full of hate from the religious right. For example, if we graph the number of LGBTQ people getting married, it would start with 0 not too many years ago and swoop up to over 1 million people today. A counterblast to the prevailing pessimism of our age, and proves, however much we like to think to the contrary. These books plead with us to measure progress statistically. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. Yes, they are quite optimistic, but it’s hard to reconcile their numbers with the view of the world I get from the media every day. Pinker and Rosling overwhelm us with statistics and graphs. I find these books are making me more optimistic, but it’s very complicated to explain why. Gates recommends Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker and Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling. However, they could be the psychological medicine we need. Be Positive: A book about optimism (Being the Best Me Series) Softcover. Especially since the two books are heavily based on statistics. In an era where authors hawk their books as cure-alls but seldom delivery, it’s easy to dismiss Gates and his book recommendations. Bill Gates is promoting two new books he claims will make us optimistic. These can be depressing times if you’re a liberal.
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