Hans Rosling’s 2006 presentation on statistics is one of the
most watched Ted Talks. The main point
he makes is that data and statistics can give us a perspective about the world
by showing whether what we think to be true is actually true. He demonstrates this by doing an unofficial
experiment with some of Sweden’s top students at a medical university. The students are given a pre-test about which
countries have the highest child mortality rate. It turns out that a chimpanzee would score
higher on the test than the average of Sweden’s top students. Nope, they don’t have really smart monkeys or
really dumb students in Sweden, they have misconceptions.
The other point that Rosling makes is that data needs to be presented
in a meaningful way. It turns out he’s a
master at presenting data and making statistics come alive. His use of animated statistics takes what
would be dry, dull, and difficult to digest data and turns it into information
that is inherently understandable and amazingly interesting; so much so that over
8.5 million people have tuned in to watch a 20 minute video on statistics.
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