Are Adults Forgetting to Read? is the latest Economist article that’s been making its rounds on BlueSky. In this article, 160,000 people from OECD countries (read: mostly wealthy) were surveyed to determine if their literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills could beat the average ten year-old’s.
The good news? If you’re from a country that cares about an educated populace like Japan, Sweden or Finland, your peers are reading and numerating better than a ten-year old, and a good number are even faring well above this level. Congrats!
If you’re from the United States like me, however, the bad news is we’re below the OECD average for literacy and three countries from the bottom of the pack for numeracy. Don’t worry, it gets better! (It doesn’t.) Not only have these numbers fallen by ten points over previous years, we know that 54% of U.S. adults are reading at or below a 6th grade level.
Ouch.
What if I told you the country’s most important questions were being answered by ten year-olds? Questions like:
If you knew a legion of ten year-olds was handling these important topics, I’m willing to bet you’d be shocked into a brain aneurysm. Obviously, ten year-olds don’t have the mental capacity to process the required information and context to answer these questons.
Yet, if we are using child-like processing skills to elect people into office or vote on referendums, how is this behavior different than allowing children to decide our nation’s future? By leaving our brains stunted in literacy and numeracy skills, we are not only opening ourselves to bad decisions, we are also vulnerable to people that want to manipulate us with lies and misinformation.
Here’s a quote from the article that I believe expands on this idea:
“People who perform best in the tests boast wages that are 75% higher than those with the worst scores. And returns to good numeracy and literacy seem to be more than just financial. High scorers report that they are happier and in better health. Low scorers seem to be more suspicious of others, and more likely to report feeling alienated from politics.”
Being smart isn’t just the right thing to do – it serves your interests in the long run.
I’ll be honest with you – I’m not that smart. Sure, I went to university and have bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Computer Science. But, with respect to understanding the world around me, there are incredible gaps in my knowledge. Even more embarrassing, during the 14 years since I graduated from university, I’ve barely put any effort into understanding the world I live in.
I am a quintessential American Idiot. I know “war is bad” – but aside from the obvious (like the loss of human life), I can’t tell you why war is bad, nor explain if there’s ever a good reason to go to war. I can’t tell you why capitalism is better than socialism, or why we get involved in some global affairs yet not others. When it comes down to my basic understanding of everything around me, I can’t discern my beliefs from those that were parroted from someone else.
This means I'm part of the problem. My own intellectual laziness is part of a national crisis. But, I can’t change what the public does - I can only change my own behavior.
So, I’ll start by reading.
As the title states, this book is a brief introduction to world history, taught by the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations and close advisor to Colin Powell during the Bush administration.
Haas opens the book with a brief overview of global history, then does a deeper dive into global regions, explaining each region’s history, challenges, and geopolitical environment. He then wraps up the book by explaining challenges the entire international community faces, including public health, climate change, and cybersecurity.
So far, I’ve only read about a third of the book and I already feel as though I have a deeper understanding of global events and how they impact me as an everyday citizen.
I have a special appreciation for this book, as there are people in my life that have fallen prey to some really nutso conspiracy theories and pseudoscience. These beliefs have been frighteningly bizarre, like using horse dewormer to fight COVID, “frequency-healing” devices, or governments manipulating the weather with “chem trails.” But, more than the pure mind-fuckery of it all, it has been heartbreaking to see my loved ones living in a constant state of fear and distrust because online influencers have sold them a basket of lies.
The Skeptics’ Guide is divided into multiple sections, with the first and largest covering all the ways in which our brains can be tricked – even showing how our brains can trick themselves. It explains cognitive misperceptions, logical fallacies, and strategies for distinguishing actual science from pseudoscience. Finally, Dr. Novella wraps up the book with various “adventures” where readers dive into case studies of how the public gets fooled by incorrect beliefs.
In reading this book, I hope to protect myself but also give my loved ones tools for guarding against misinformation.
This book is all about sharpening you brain with respect to statistics and numeracy. Wheelan explains the core concepts of statistics in an approachable way, and educates readers about the dangers of relying too much on statistics as well as safeguards to not get fooled by intellectually dishonest data. Although I have a bachelor’s degree in Economics, it’s been a while since I’ve studied statistics, so I’m hoping this book will help me refresh my skills.