I'll start off this humble review by saying : I'm not an economist ... But neither is Friedman ...

This is my first book in "Globalization" and economy (or anything of this sort), so while some might give this 2-3 stars for "repetitiveness" or "obviousness", I chose to give it 4. Initially, I was hesitant to grant this book the 4th star, but looking back, I DID actually learn some new things from this book. Furthermore, whatever observations I had about this matter (which were obvious to me and others) have been woven and blended beautifully into one big picture. Hence the four stars.

Friedman's book is thorough (maybe even TOO thorough), yet simple to understand and grasp. His point is clear: The World is Flat (or at least, flattening) due to the cause of the 10 flatteners he outlines in the first half, as well as what he dubbed "The Triple Convergence". The phrase "The World is Flat" is a bold metaphor to describe the changes in our world a.k.a. "Globalization".

He goes on to explain, through simple anecdotes and personal experiences (as well as some stats and numbers here and there, if needed) how this affects both America and developing countries. He foresees the near future and what is needed for both individuals and companies to cope with this new era he called Globalization 3.0. Also included in the mix is what countries might need to do (Glocalization).

He finishes off with the "Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention" which is a beautiful observation regarding the roles global supply chains "might" play in preventing wars (or at least trying to do so).

Friedman is a journalist, NOT an economist. So, expect nothing difficult; just simple stories, examples, anecdotes, and metaphors any average reader might comprehend. It reads easily like a long magazine article. If you are looking for theories and proof, this is NOT your book. Despite that, many of the author's suggestions and hypotheses seem real, reasonable, on point, and somewhat convincing.

Whether you are pro-globalization or anti-globalization, I suggest giving this book a quick scan. It sure has answered a LOT of questions I had in mind about various happenings in our world. Great job done there !

The book suffers from one major problem : Redundancy. This caused the 300-400-page-book to transform into a 600-paged-beast that won't go down easily. The author could've chopped this book down by at least 150-200 pages (maybe more if you get his point and conclude your own theories). Nonetheless, even if you end up skipping quite a few pages (especially in the latter half) it's OK, as this book acts more like a reference of the 21st century + a suggested "manual" for the foreseeable feature ...

Conclusion:
Easy-to-read, albeit long magazine-like book which makes sense trying to explain what's happening in our world nowadays. Recommended for tech lovers "especially". But still great to read (even partially) for others.

This is an important book, I wanted to give it 5 stars but couldn't because it was so ineffectively written, where was the editor?? It had so many important ideas but they were lost in the never-ending, 635 pages full of anecdotes, personal friend's opinions and in general, just full of himself view. As if Friedman himself was somehow the center of globalization. The first 200 pages of the 10 flatteners, could have been done in 20.
That being said, he raised countless important arguments, things everyone today needs to be thinking very seriously about, which is why it made me so angry that he didn't do it in half the pages with much less self indulgence. Although this edition is from 2007, it is hopelessly outdated on the technology front, but advances since then actually makes most of his conclusions more insightful and valuable. For example his predictions of technology becoming ever more personal, mobile and virtual based on the Palm Pilots of the day, and of people becoming ever more addicted to their technology, have truly been borne out in the age of iPhones.
Where he really dares to take a stand, and where again his predictive power is almost uncanny, is the Arab-Muslim world, its relationship to globalization and the future of terrorism. Skipping all pretence of being politically correct, he goes right to the point: the authoritarian Arab regimes and Islam itself, are wired against the openness, tolerance and collaboration required for reaping the benefits of globalization. The frustration and profound humilation young Arab Muslims feel at the fact that now everyone in the world can see where everyone stands vis-a-vis others and specifically, can now see how backwards the most repressive Arab countries are. Young Arab men and women, can simply not have the freedom of thought, expression and opportunity that many others enjoy. This creates a massive cognitive dissonance with their belief in having a superior religion and a grand past: how can a country they once ruled (Spain) today have a larger GDP than all 22 Arab states combined? The problem is that they want the the power that free inquiry confers, without the free inquiry, they want neither to abandon their religion nor remain forever in the rear of human technical advance. Intractable dilemnas breed anger and lashing out, some in the form of terrorism. Friedman correctly points out that terriorism is spawned by the poverty of dignity, not the poverty of money, the humiliation is the key.
I also really appreciated the parenting part, how to raise kids in an ever more competitive, global world. Only 4 pages long, this is important stuff. "There comes a time when you've got to put away the Game Boys, turn off the television, shut off the iPod, and get your kids down to work" Referring to the growing cancer in America of entitlement, that delayed gratification is an unacceptable punishment, that our kids should face nothing bad or disappointing or stressful, he lays blame squarely where it belongs: parents. Education is not just about cognitive skills, it is about building character. Finally, he strongly argues how the weak, damaging political U.S. leadership post-9/11, has never quite called upon the nation to make a sacrifice for something important, be it kid's education or inventing the future through science and technology, especially of the green kind to face one of the main challenges of globalization: tens of millions of new middle class members wanted a car, a frig and an air conditioner. This is not a test. Only one planet. As an American who left the States before 9/11, I also appreciated one of his final points: As much as Eurpeans and others laugh at Americans for their optimism and naivety, the truth is the world needs what America exports: hope, not fear; dreams not memories. May it remain optimist and naive!
Lots to think about, a real thought provoker...

I don't remember this too well but I do remember thinking that Friedman leaves the impression that the market will fix everything and these are lovely times to be alive, both of which struck me as hopelessly naive when I read this and now seem more so when faced with our current state if ecological catastrophe.

عندما يحاول فريدمان إقناعك بأن مساوئ الرأسمالية ليست إلا فضائل

Awesome book to read! While I absolutely do not agree with some of his assessments of President Bush & 9/11, he makes some very valid and interesting points about world economics, politics, and humanity.

Non-Fiction. Friedman explains to us, over and over, how globalization has effectively turned the world into a very very small place -- I was okay with his metaphor of a flat world at first, but over time it started to irritate me. It's neither elegant nor practical. No matter how many virtual conference rooms you have, in a flat world it's still going to take forever to get material goods moved from China to the US, unlike our current round model; later he even starts to talk about how some parts of the world are unflat, ow, my head -- but still, his point remains: digitization, miniaturization, virtualization, and personalization have conspired to make our planet very small indeed, metaphorically speaking. For the most part, Friedman has a highly romanticized view of globalization, looking at it as more of a fascinating academic theory than a real force, and only talking to people who have benefited from the rampant outsourcing and supply-chaining.

The first two thirds of this book suffer from a distinct lack of real world consequence. It's all happy anecdotes and economic theory, which isn't exactly Friedman's strong point. Because of this, it took me about six months to read, was constantly inspiring me to nap, and was just generally twice as long as it needed to be. Friedman makes up a lot of jargon -- going as far as to repurpose common words for his own oblique purposes -- and it can be difficult to remember what he's talking about at any given moment. The other problem is Friedman's scope and focus. When I read non-fiction, I like each chapter to have a thesis. Friedman prefers to wander up and down the page, make the same point several times, dump a lot of irrelevant statistics on me, and then scurry off to deliver a glancing blow to a new perspective, only to doggedly return to his original thrice-made point as if I hadn't gotten it the first two times.

But, if you can make it through all that, cold hard reality shows up in the third act and things finally get interesting. Friedman admits that only .2% of Indians are employed in the technological industry he was so happily touting just a few chapters before. He admits that the world is not entirely flat, and that it may never become fully flat due to poverty, war, or simple fear. He talks about the ramifications of a flat world, the ways it can go wrong, how terrorist networks take advantage of the same readily available work force and supply chain that Dell or Infosys does. He takes the first two thirds of the book and puts it into context. This part I read in just three days. This is the part I can use. Globalization isn't just about Americans losing jobs. It's so much bigger than that. It's about the flow of information, about vulnerability and anger, about global responsibility. Those last hundred and fifty pages were worth struggling through the first three hundred, but only highlight how The World is Flat is more mishmash than structured thesis.

This gets two stars for the first two-thirds of the book and four stars for the last third, giving it an average of three stars.

1. While Tom Friedman was in Bangalore, my family and I were in Delhi working with new leaders of campus ministries from India, Thailand, Nepal, Korea, Mexico, Kenya, and the USA. While Tom Friedman was busy writing for the New York Times, he claimed to have been sleeping or “otherwise engaged.” Well, his previous book the “Lexus and the Olive Tree” is what he claims led him off the trail of globalization. Friedman has reduced much of our previous discussion about Modernity to simple stratas of globalization. Globalization 1.0 began with Columbus. Gobalization 2.0 began around 1800 led by the multinational companies searching for markets and labor. Global markets began, but now the forces that flatten the world, or “level the playing field”, have really begun to shape the destinies of all of us.

2. Major Dates at the End of 20th Century – The internet, e-commerce, and other forces have launched us into globalization 3.0. We have gone from small world to tiny. Now the major players are no longer multinational corporations, but every individual can now join the global competition and opportunities of the day. Now the West is no longer the great force in globalization; the forces that are flattening and shrinking the world are empowering individuals around the world, including those in remote and traditionally un-developed countries.

3. A friend and former Youth With A Mission staff person in Madison, WI returned from Chennai a few years ago with exciting vision for a new web development business. That business sells sites in the USA, but it has a back room with web designers in Chennai. This flattened world is readily available. My first web domain and site, www.haystack.org, was launched in 1995. The world has rapidly changed, and the capacity to communicate with my international team is easier and more accessible than ever before. Our next international committee meeting is next week with members gathering from India, Korea, Kenya, and five US states. The past four of our board meetings have been online with web conferencing software drawing together members from five US states. The world truly is flat and our ministry is getting on board with these technological changes as soon as they become available. In 2001, we had an international conference gathering people from S. Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Egypt through simultaneous video conferencing for four days. Yes, we had difficulty, but with our minimal resources the conference did work much of the time where other major corporations with expansive resources had failed.

4. Today young people in Thailand or India has just as much opportunity to connect to this amazing new flat world, Globalization 3.0, and create new industries. It’s completely reasonable to believe that the next big technological advance will not come from a major international corporation, but from a young genius at an internet café in Malaysia or through an open source platform developed by two young computer programmers in Kenya.

5. The internet fever and the stock market boom created incredible optimism in telecom companies. Friedman said they didn’t consider the demand and they supplied the world with fiber-optic cables. The bubble burst, but the hardwire cables remained at pennies on the dollar. This crazy period changed the world with new flattened competition, only the result was more flattening than anyone imagined. The oversupply created price wars with a great boon to consumers. This flattening made competition even better, and broke down regional differences.


6. The failure of the 1996 telecom information act left many US households out of the loop. Businesses were wired, but homes were not in the US. India had a better access to the new information super-highway than did the average American. This is how Friedman points out how the flat world for those who get it right. If governments don’t get it right for their citizens, the flat world accessibility will put those citizens outside the realm of participation.

7. The world of communications and collaboration is changing fast and that presents us with unfrequented opportunities. But the train is leaving the station and we will need to run fast to catch it. Communication between individuals across cultural and geographic boundaries has become easy. Friendships, partnerships, ministry, and prayer can be sustained to some degree through this new flat world.

8. The good news is that technology has opened new vistas of communication and broken down centuries old barriers to the gospel. “The Information Age is boundary blind,” O’Brien writes, “There are no unique continental or regional areas identified exclusively as ‘mission fields’.”

9. Our participation in the flat world as missions and ministries does not just happen. We need to step into this as “spiritual flatteners”. I will report more at out next meeting, so do come prepared. Remember, God has been speaking to us over the past two years about the value of communications and over the past three years about healing our nervous system. I believe He is presenting us with both opportunities and tools to do exactly that, but we will have to commit to take a lead in this. It cannot be left to writers, researchers and IT buffs.

10. This new platform; ‘It is a global, Web-enabled platform for multiple forms of collaboration. This platform enables individuals, groups, companies, and universities anywhere in the world to collaborate -- for the purposes of innovation, production, education, research, entertainment, and, alas, war-making -- like no creative platform ever before. This platform now operates without regard to geography, distance, time, and, in the near future, even language. Going forward, this platform is going to be at the centre of everything. Wealth and power will increasingly accrue to those countries, companies, individuals, universities, and groups who get three basic things right: [1] the infrastructure to connect with this flat-world platform, [2] the education to get more of their people innovating on, working off of, and tapping into this platform, and, finally, [3] the governance to get the best out of this platform and cushion its worst side effects.” (2005:205)

The world is flat, but this book is not. It's Thomas Friedman's ginormous examination of globalization and the forces that drive it, starting with the end of the last century and continuing up to about 2:15 yesterday afternoon. The book traces the antecedents and consequences of global communication, outsourcing, and exportation of culture in the last few years, with an eye for excrutiating detail. Friedman is overly fond of creating supurfluous terminology for the sake of creating supurfluous terminology ("The 10 Flateners", "Steroids", "The Great Convergance" etc.) but he's nothing if not thorough. It was kind of interesting to see a big picture examination of the events and trends that I lived through --and to some extent participated in. Things like the explosion of telecommunications, the growth of the Internet, the dot com boom and bust, the proliferation of cell phones, and the love/hate relationship America has developed with outsourcing. It's neat to see how all these pieces (supposedly) fit together and fed off of each other to produce some kind of man-eating jigsaw puzzle.

Unfortunately, Friedman is a better researcher than he is writer. The World is Flat positively creeps along like a melting glacier, and its narrative is only rarely infused with any kind of character, whit, or entertainment. The author has this awful habit of repeating anecdotes and points ad nauseum, as if their repitition will bring him some kind of credence that's otherwise missing. Did you know that India is becoming a high-tech center for outsourced jobs that can be done more cheaply there? Also, India is becoming a high-tech center for outsourced jobs that can be done more cheaply there. In India, outsourced jobs that can be done more cheaply there are building a high-tech center. In India, outsourced jobs high tech purple monkey dishwasher. It just goes on and on and on and on. I get it! Move on, Friedman.

So as interesting as parts of it are, I can't really recommend The World is Flat, and I'm not even going near the book's shortcomings as a (one-sided) critique of globalization. If you really want the quick-and-dirty version of the book, the Wikipedia entry has decent summaries of each chapter.

I enjoyed this book. It gave me a lot of insight into the world. The book is centered around the trend of companies outsourcing and globalizing.

Right before this, I read "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism", a book that was a bit harsh of free-market capitalism. So, when the Friedman started talking about the benefits it has, I was a little skeptical.

Globalization has always been around. The East India Company existed centuries ago as a global trade company. However, this movement is a lot more on individual empowerment. This has degenerated walls like race and gender. Thanks to the Internet, collaboration is incredibly simple and it goes on continually.

There are caveats. There's no truly global company. When Indians get jobs, Americans do not. One economy grows while the other suffers. The author indicates that Indians are hired because they're cheaper and more productive.

At first the author seemed to be avoiding these caveats, but towards the end he does concede the problems of globalization. After the Berlin Wall fell and a few other political occurrences, the global economy has imploded with laborers. Thanks to the Internet, geography is no longer a barrier to getting cheap labor.

Friedman explores the side effects of globalization but maintains his original point that it is generally a good thing. His political viewpoints coincide a bit with my own: it is best to have a strong economy run by a strong government. He echoes my idea that a strong economy needs to have a strong, progressive government.

What I think was very interesting was that Friedman made several predictions about the economy and politics today that actually came true. India and China are growing a lot, and the 2008 boom likely gave companies a good opportunity to outsource. Several times he also talks about having oppressive religion-based politics which end up preventing economic growth and other issues that eerily represent the Tea Party.

Today though, a lot of our world is digital. So, in explaining a augmented digital world, you really should have some knowledge of the subject. Friedman is a writer, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but some of his explanations seemed lackluster and a bit incorrect. One time he refers to the Internet as "magic" which doesn't really help people understand it.

To conclude with these thoughts, this is a decent book. It has a very important theme. The world is changing. To try to relate to the policies of the Cold War era just won't work. America isn't the superpower it once was. We've grown stagnant while these other countries have risen. It's important to keep this in perspective, because as time goes on, this will grow even more true. America has to set a new vision, a singular vision, that allows us to move forward. If we don't, we lose out on the world's benefits.

This was one of my Cracker Barrel picks on a recent road trip. I love Cracker Barrel's books-on-cd! I liked Freidman's book, it was full of great information, a little simplified, (but aren't the 'social action' books always a little high school/Time magazineish?), but important nonetheless. I admit, somewhere through the hills of Pennsylvania I drifted in and out of interest - I may not have taken notes on the ten 'flateners' of the world, but I do think it's a quality read (or listen).

When the arguments are so simple, it's easy believe someone else must be responsible. I mean, of course someone's on top of it, right? Well...

Basically, the world is 'flatening' -another way to say 'getting smaller' - because of easier methods of trade, faster communication, more and more people having access to the net, etc. and that this world wide development is similar to a time when, say, the printing press was invented. And so how does America fit in? What are other countries, like China and India, doing differently than us and where will this put them -and us- in 10 years?

The book covers a lot of issues including a call for help for the 'unflat' countries in the underdeveloped world, and questions the implications of terrorist operations in a smaller and smaller world where each death has the possibility of being broadcast on millions of screens.

Man...I need a road trip buddy.

It provides the vision of 21th century where technology can flatten all the barriers of language, distance and timezone etc. I think in some way it is genuine, but I'm not entirely persuaded.

Everything looks like a science fiction, the author envisioned what the world will be based on the trends of technology, but he didn't show any statistics to prove his points. Nevertheless, it is a very good viewpoint the human being has been approaching and actually it lifted the limit of my imagination 5 years ago.

There's a TED video tells things against this book: Why the World actually isn't flat http://www.ted.com/talks/pankaj_ghema...

Friedman, Thomas, (2005), The World is Flat, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, NY. This is a best selling book about ten forces that have “flattened the world” and created a new global economy where entrepreneurs, established companies, and individuals will work together – and compete – to create value. The book also looks at implications for America and American citizens who must adapt to the new world order or face serious economic consequences.