Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World Paperback – 1 April 2021

This is a fantastic overview of data in a widely ranging areas of the world. Mostly topics are important areas and Smil does not shy away from some technical detail (many other overview books may omit good discussions on devices and manufacturing). I think the strength of the book and author is looking to past and present data, some extrapolations to the future and subjective views are more questionable (however these are not frequent).Overall, a great book that touches on an impressive range of areas with success, there will always be some disagreements when tackling such a broad area. However, that minor downside does not detract from the book and what it achieves, especially in comparison to books which try to do the same.

I feel like this is Vaclav Smil's greatist hits album at the end of a monolithic anthology.None of the depth I'm used to from this excellent author, more like headlines and short articles.I'm already a fan of Smil, so I trusted the numbers he quoted and the context in which they were presented, even though they went against my previously held principles. For example, we learn here that eating meat is ok in moderation, electric cars aren't a good idea unless your country's electricity grid is green-powered. Wind turbine generators use almost as much carbon to manufacture as they produce.However, he still asserts current global warming is on an unprecedented scale and caused by humans. There are 71 such assertions made here.This is an excellent entre into Smil's work. Any of these topics can be seen is massive detail in his previous works.

As ever Vaclav Smil provides accurate and detailed analysis to give clear insights into numbers that matter. Great choice of subject matter and fascinating short reviews of the subjects

An easy read from one of Bill Gate's favourite authors. With each chapter only 2-3 pages long, it's a good book to pick up and get up to speed on different topics. Some commentators mentioned that the chapters seem to jump from random topic to another without much connections and there is some truth to these observations.As you read through the chapters, Smil is very matter of fact with his figures and doesn't add his own biases. However, some of his insights are very interesting. For example, he suggests that the global consumption of meat should switch from Pork: Chicken: Beef (40 : 37 : 10) to 40 : 50 :10 which would in effect provide 10% more meat in the world and reduce our reliance on beef which requires a huge amount of energy to sustain.One of the key messages that he puts across in the book is that it will be very difficult for the world as a whole to reduce energy consumption and switch to more efficient sources. Even the switch to electric cars is not always as rosy as you might imagine when you consider that an EV in India is powered up by electricity mainly fueled by coal.Overall a good read and many cool insights that encourages you to put the book down and conduct further research yourself.

Short terms on lots of different topics and stats, and some real insights. Quite simply a must read for those who like to understand the world we live in. Think of it as a more descriptive and accessible version of the Economists' world in figures book. Another great book by Vaclav.

Not only they don’t lie, but these numbers make even well written articles on the subjects in the serious media read like opinion pieces.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Prof Smil for writing a book I can almost understand and for your humour!This science of numbers is new to me and the few other books I have read by the same author were extremely hard to understand and very dry. I know science is hard..It was so nice to find in the book the lively person that I could see in his presentations I could find on YouTube.

If you are looking for a light read before sleeping this book is a good choice. I liked that it's subject is no longer than a couple of pages.