FutureIQ

The World is Getting Better Than You Think - A Statistical Analysis of Things That Are Improving

4,290 views • Mar 22, 2024
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Concepts in this episode

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  1. Factfulness principle

    Factfulness is the discipline of holding three truths together: conditions can be terrible, measurably better than before, and still far from good enough. It separates evidence about progress from judgments about acceptability, preserving both hope and urgency.

  2. Negativity Bias mental-model

    Bad news grips attention more strongly than good news, so an attention-optimized media diet can make decline feel universal even when long-term conditions are improving.

  3. Statistical Good News principle

    Important progress often arrives as small changes in percentages and rates, making it almost invisible as news. To detect it, compare consistent measures across long time horizons instead of treating vivid daily events as evidence of the historical direction.

  4. Availability Heuristic mental-model

    People mistake ease of recall for real-world frequency or importance, so vivid, dramatic events feel larger than slow, quiet problems—and gradual progress barely registers at all.

  5. Human Problem-Solving Capacity mechanism

    Societies can turn a vast, human-caused harm into a solvable problem by identifying its mechanism and coordinating an institutional response. The resulting progress is easy to overlook once the avoided damage disappears from view.

  6. Resilience Through Preparedness mechanism

    Hazards do not determine their own human cost. Preparation, stronger infrastructure, effective response systems, and better medicine can reduce damage even while threats become more frequent.

  7. Dual-Use Technology principle

    A technology can amplify visible harms while quietly improving coordination and livelihoods. Judge the whole bundle: what the tool enables, who uses it, and which effects attract attention.

Description

Is the world getting better or worse? The answer is quite complex. But there are a lot of good things happening in the world that get overshadowed by the bad ones. Which makes us feel like there is no progress and everything is getting worse than it already was. Therefore, we decided to statistically prove to you how good things are improving in the world, how bad things are reducing, and why you think everything is getting worse in this episode of the FutureIQ podcast. Links mentioned in the episode: The Science Of Being Happy: https://youtu.be/reYUf2nkcQg Antifragile episode: https://youtu.be/75RulJrHFMc Book - Factfulness: https://tapthe.link/FactfulnessBook More Videos: Why Surge Pricing Feels Wrong: https://youtu.be/IsHPxh-C0Sw https://ourworldindata.org/much-better-awful-can-be-better : The world is much better. But: The world is awful. The world can be much better. https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen : Hans Rosling TED Talk https://ourworldindata.org/wrong-about-the-world: People are wrong about how good/bad the world is https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness-book/32-improvements/ : 32 improvements in the world shown in charts (16 bad things reducing and 16 good things increasing) Hope you enjoyed FutureIQ by Navin Kabra and Shrikant Joshi. Do hit us up on Twitter: @ngkabra http://twitter.com/ngkabra @shrikant https://twitter.com/shrikant Listen it on the podcast provider of your choice: https://tapthe.link/FutureIQRSS Watch other episodes of The FutureIQ podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAppTB0r5_TaYueZ0adD42Wiw5X-wTE4v 00:00 Introduction 02:52 Things that have improved 10:06 Why do we think it's getting worse? 11:46 Good things getting better 15:38 The importance of good news #futureiq #goodnews

Transcript

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