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  • Numbers Don't Lie

  • 71 Things You Need to Know About the World
  • By: Vaclav Smil
  • Narrated by: Stephen Perring
  • Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (123 ratings)
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Numbers Don't Lie cover art

Numbers Don't Lie

By: Vaclav Smil
Narrated by: Stephen Perring
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Is flying dangerous? How much do the world's cows weigh? And what makes people happy?

From earth's nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energise them, to the transportation and inventions of our modern world - and how all of this affects the planet itself - in Numbers Don't Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking.

Packed with 'well-I-never-knew-that' information and with fascinating and unusual examples throughout, we find out how many people it took to build the Great Pyramid, that vaccination yields the best return on investment and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). There's a wonderful mix of science, history and wit, all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics.

Urgent and essential, Numbers Don't Lie inspires listeners to interrogate what they take to be true in these significant times. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Vaclav Smil (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil." (Bill Gates)

What listeners say about Numbers Don't Lie

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

More vaccine propaganda

Was enjoying the book until chapter 4, where the author drops a shameless promotion of vaccines and the eugenics outfit The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I immediately deleted the audiobook from my device.

Smil should be ashamed of himself. The narrator was good.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting book

Worth listening to. A lot of similar information to his book How The World Really Works, which is a better narrative.

The audio book is too quiet, so difficult to hear when commuting on public transport.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent and informative

A good read and lesson on critical thinking. For so much of our lives we focus on immediacy and disregard more in depth thought. This book is the antithesis of that and stimulates one to think deeper than normal.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

good stuff but it's too quiet

there's a problem with the sound mixing and although the content is interesting, I've struggled to listen even at max volume

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Just random facts

Just random topics with no connection, no story, random comparisons between random countries and dates. Could have been summaries of some random Wikipedia pages. No depth, no scope. Just a collection of trivia. Terrible.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

… but they don’t tell you anything either, at least not in this book

Thus book is banal in the extreme.
A series of snippets of economic information, but precious little real analysis, prediction, or insight.
For example, we are told the US has a trade deficit in manufactured goods, China has a surplus. I know this already. These positions used to be reversed. Will they change back, asks the book? It f doors not ask would this be realistic, good, likely - nothing useful.
China has a one child policy, which it reversed, due to a pending demographic bomb. India is now at the stage where it wants to curb population growth. But these observations are not linked, or a cycle of development suggested, or is there a sweet spot of population growth explored. Nothing but non-lying numbers.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wish it was longer!

Very interesting, well presented and easy to understand. Just wish it was longer to learn more!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible voice

Tough to stay awake with this voice. Content is rather boring. Can not recomand this book.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Had some good facts but became boring

This book had some interesting facts, but lacked a narrative, instead it just fired out information. Some of this was interesting so wasn’t.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very interesting but probably better as a book

All the numbers and statistics used in the book are really interesting. However, they all refer to graphs and charts and that's not very handy. I would have given a 4 star if the narrator wouldn't say "please refer to the pdf attachment" every chapter and if the chapters had a title to follow the story better.

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