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Hans Rosling - the extraordinary life of an untrivial mind

by Szymon Stoma

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I care about data. Data is at the core of my everyday job. I have a priviledge to meet and work with smart and interesting people. Only recently I learned, that on 7th of February a true hero of mine, professor Hans Rosling, had passed away. A person who cared about data and achieved so much about popularizing data-driven approach, like not many others in the history.

Why I value his work so much? He was everything what I prize in one body: A kind, empathic person caring about the future of a human kind, a brilliant scientist, an outstanding thinker staying out-of-box and a character who spend his life rejecting conventions and typical career paths.

He contributed a lot to statistics and data visualisation field. He is mostly known from Gapminder project, a way to visualize and popularize facts. But he was also an MD who managed to crack some significant problems while his stay in Africa, as well as sword swallower. Should I say more to advertise learning more about the man? There is an excellent podcast on his life done by BBC. I link below his famous TED talks. If you have an hour of time, I highly recommend looking into this work. It can change your life. As it did with mine. Thank you Hans!