I'd genuinely want to understand why we have such a different understanding of that comment.

Surely the title can't be taken literally, otherwise the book would be the size of wikipedia, no?

I didn't say the topics left out were obscure, but arbitrarily chosen. Can some book titled "How the world works" that talks about economy be criticised for not talking about effective communication or table manners?

And re the undervaluing, I mentioned that myself, but surely we can't expect every book to include arbitrarily chosen topics that happen to be undervalued? Hawking's book doesn't mention wealth inequality for example.

Not wanting to argue, I just don't understand why I'd see the original comment as out of line while you see mine in the same way.