Thanh Nguyen-Kim
asked:
Those who have read both books: should I read Guns, Germs and Steel? As GG&S tries to give explanation of how different countries end up having development gap. While Factfulness tries to convince people of how little the gap exists. P/S: GG&S failed when I did fact check, the oldest pottery was found in China, not South America.
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Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World � and Why Things Are Better Than You Think,
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Keith Swenson
I read both, they are different books. Factfulness is a good summary about the current status of the world, and gives you a framework to understand that current state. It is not about trying to convince people that a gap does not exist, but shows that most people's understanding of the gap is many decades out of date -- and that harms efforts to help.
GG&S is a brilliant book that explains the structural reasons that certain historical trends happened in certain places. This gives you a lens on history develop, but not so much about why there is a gap, but why certain geographies were more condusive to to cultural grows at different levels of technology.
You will find GG&S enormously helpful in understanding history. I don't remember the age of pottery being an important part of his main point and this fact check seems unimportant. I would not be surprised a few errors like that might be in any book, but I don't think it would detract from the main message.
You must read both.
GG&S is a brilliant book that explains the structural reasons that certain historical trends happened in certain places. This gives you a lens on history develop, but not so much about why there is a gap, but why certain geographies were more condusive to to cultural grows at different levels of technology.
You will find GG&S enormously helpful in understanding history. I don't remember the age of pottery being an important part of his main point and this fact check seems unimportant. I would not be surprised a few errors like that might be in any book, but I don't think it would detract from the main message.
You must read both.
Samantha
Guns Germs and Steel was published in 1997. The discovery of the oldest pottery in the world in China was in 2012. It's hardly fair to hold Jared Diamond accountable for something that wasn't known when his book was published. Also, as someone else has stated, pottery is not really an important element of his argument. I'm not certain how you pulled that particular fact to check but it doesn't invalidate the book, which definitely changed the way I think about the world.
And yes, they are not about the same thing. Saying one is about how a development gap came about and the other is about how there isn't really a development gap is inaccurate. Certainly Factfulness compares societies - in one chart, the author compares Sweden in different years to other countries, so that at the year of his birth, Sweden was about at the same level of development as Egypt is now. This is an excellent reminder for readers in the Western world that our current standard of living is very recent. I actually think the books complement each other.
And yes, they are not about the same thing. Saying one is about how a development gap came about and the other is about how there isn't really a development gap is inaccurate. Certainly Factfulness compares societies - in one chart, the author compares Sweden in different years to other countries, so that at the year of his birth, Sweden was about at the same level of development as Egypt is now. This is an excellent reminder for readers in the Western world that our current standard of living is very recent. I actually think the books complement each other.
Tiago
I'd add another book from Jared Diamond, "Collapse" where a not so optimistic view of our present/future is presented (human population is demanding more resources than the planet can afford -- which is one key factor of ancient society collapses). Is this the urgency instinct? It would be interesting to see how those two different views reconcile.
Cybercrone
I haven't read GG&S, but I really liked Factfulness. I don't think he's trying to convince people of how small the gap is, but to show that it's a progression, not a gap - and to demonstrate how much progress has been made over the past few decades.
Sibylle
I've read both, and was highly impressed with GG&S. Yes, it's a different book which concentrates more on the history of how we got where we are. It's well writtena nd informative, and worth reading.
Rob
Probably a little late now, but it's always interesting to see how much we humans combine and diverge.
Having read both, I thought they were both good. I agree with John Stewart about much of Factfullness is apparent, but I loved it and really enjoy/ed Hans's style. It's a short easy read. This is in contrast to GG&S which, in word length, is probably 2x or 3x Factfullness. It should have been edited down to much shorter. The first few chapters clarify the main ideas, but it's far to prolix.
Anyway, read both. They're good books and you're the richer for it.
Having read both, I thought they were both good. I agree with John Stewart about much of Factfullness is apparent, but I loved it and really enjoy/ed Hans's style. It's a short easy read. This is in contrast to GG&S which, in word length, is probably 2x or 3x Factfullness. It should have been edited down to much shorter. The first few chapters clarify the main ideas, but it's far to prolix.
Anyway, read both. They're good books and you're the richer for it.
Shaheen
Just finished reading Factfulness, an fantastic smooth read. Loved the structure of each chapter starting with real story, centered around single bias/instinct, ending with a neat summary.
GG&S has been lying on my table for sometime, was busy finishing Sapiens by Yuval, and Silk Road by Frankopan, Now i am curious to know what GG&S is all about, reading through the comments here
GG&S has been lying on my table for sometime, was busy finishing Sapiens by Yuval, and Silk Road by Frankopan, Now i am curious to know what GG&S is all about, reading through the comments here
Lew
I agree with Mr Swenson's comments. I also reinforce his recommendation that GG&S is a must read. Anything by Jared Diamond is well worth your time.
John Stewart
I think the comparison is outrageous. I agree with Keith Swenson about the value of GG&S, but Factfulness is just drivel in my opinion--a repackaging of the obvious, like a very bad TED talk. As far as I've read, the "Ten Reasons" are just tenets of basic critical thinking that many of us learned by high school (though clearly many didn't).
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Aug 01, 2020 04:20AM · flag