Bill Gates in e-book give-away for US grads

Bill Gates has pledged he will give every US college graduate a free copy of a book called Factfulness.

Factfulness is published by Flatiron in the US and by Sceptre in the UK, and talks about 10 instincts that distort our perspective, arguing the world is "in a much better state than we might think" and "when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most". 

The book was authored by the late Swedish doctor and statistician Hans Rosling, who died of cancer last year. The final pages were completed after his death with the help of his son and daughter-in-law Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund.

Gates said the late global health expert's book was "one of the most important books he had ever read" and urged 2018's graduates to read it to "learn to think, and act, factfully", noting it was "packed with advice about how to see the world clearly".

"Although I think everyone should read it, it has especially useful insights for anyone who’s making the leap out of college and into the next phase of life," he wrote on Gates Notes. 

The free download was available all this week, until Friday (8th June), according to a spokesperson for Gates. Because of international publishing rights, Gates is only offering the free e-publication to graduates from US schools.

Since publishing the bok 10 weeks ago, Sceptre has shipped over 100,000 copies of Factfulness across all editions so far, with the hardback currently on it’s 16th reprint.