They give you a very deep understanding

of how civilization is developed.

Here in this book, "Numbers Don't Lie"

he's boiled it down into

71 Things You Need to Know About the World.

This is the most information he's ever put in a book,

and yet probably the most digestible.

A great one is about batteries.

He explains to keep the electricity system reliable

is going to be very hard

if we only have weather dependent sources

like solar and wind.

He gives examples like Tokyo

and what needs go on with batteries

and how little change in batteries there's actually been.

But it's nothing like microchips,

which sometimes confuses us to think

that exponential improvement can just show up everywhere.

One of those facts that you just have to go;

“That's wild, I wouldn't have expected that.”

is the reduction in alcohol consumption.

That was stunning to me, and you know,

when I was reading this thing,

I said to people,

“Hey, how much wine people were drinking in 1850, versus 2020?”

Just to guess.

So drinking is pretty constant from 1850 to 1950,

but French wine consumption

is now a third of what it was in 1950.

That's amazing to me.

I mean, wow!

What happened there?

Was life just so bleak?

Here's another one.

The whole thing about humans

that came down from the trees

to chase grass-eating animals.

Our endurance comes from two-legged running

and the ability to sweat,

and that that allows us

to run down these rich sources of protein,

that allow our brain to develop,

to enhance the social behaviors

that make us even more effective

at being hunter-gatherers.

It's just super novel, and kind of unusual.

You will love a lot of these numbers.

I unabashedly recommend this book.

It'll give you a framework to think about things.