Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Assume You Are Not “Normal” and Other People Are Not Idiots
To avoid getting your leg crushed in an elevator and other bad mistakes, stay
open to the possibility that your experience might not be “normal.” Be
cautious about generalizing from Level 4 experiences to the rest of the world.
Especially if it leads you to the conclusion that other people are idiots.
If you were to visit Tunisia, a country where you find people living on
every level from 1 to 4, you might come across houses that were half-built—
like this one, belonging to the Salhi family, who live in the capital, Tunis. You
might conclude that Tunisians were lazy or disorganized.

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You can visit the Salhi family on Dollar Street and see how they live.
Mabrouk is 52 years old and is a gardener. His wife, Jamila, is 44 years old
and runs a home-based bakery. Most of their neighbors have similar half-built
second floors on their houses. You see this everywhere on Levels 2 and 3
across the world. In Sweden, if someone built their house like that, we would
think they had a severe planning problem, or maybe the builders had run
away. But you can’t generalize from Sweden to Tunisia.
The Salhis, and many others living in similar circumstances, have found a
brilliant way to solve several problems at once. On Levels 2 and 3, families
often do not have access to a bank to put their savings and cannot get a loan.
So, to save up to improve their home, they must pile up money. Money,
though, can be stolen or lose its value through inflation. So, instead, whenever
they can afford them, the Salhis buy actual bricks, which won’t lose their
value. But there is no space inside to store the bricks and the bricks might get
stolen if they are left in a pile outside. Better to add the bricks to the house as
you buy them. Thieves can’t steal them. Inflation won’t change their value.
No one needs to check your credit rating. And over 10 or 15 years you are
slowly building your family a better home. Instead of assuming that the Salhis
are lazy or disorganized, assume they are smart and ask yourself, How can
this be such a smart solution?