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)

Rosy colored glasses perspective of humanity and how technology and globalization trends will progress the human condition. This is a con job that supports the hyperbole and hubris of the powers- that- be. In the last analysis, all this rhetoric and technology exponentially accelerates our path to human extinction by exacerbating climate change, overpopulation, infinite economic growth, exhaustion and destruction of all natural resources; plus, ecocide and its resultant diseases and its extinction of other species - that one day may also include homo sapiens. How can the author miss the most salient threats to human existence in his research and advocate for the misguided benefits of globalization technolgical innovation? In short, this book is more fiction than truth - but I say this with the advantage of hindsight.

There was a time when I thought that The New York Times and Pulitzer Prize were beyond reproach - now I am not so sure - as it is amazingly self-evidence that they dance to the tunes of the military~industrial~consumer~congressional complex. That is not good for democracy- but more importantly the existence of humanity.

Friedman's basic thesis is that the internet revolution has shifted globalization from the era of multi-national companies to now accessible individuals, thus making the world citizens more egalitarian in terms of their opportunities.
He cites the fall of the Berlin wall/communism as the first step in all this because geopolitically this made the world "whole" as well as the advent of personalized PC (Apple/microsoft-IBM) in which anyone can create their own content. The next step that happens is the wide availability of internet/www/fiberoptics that allowed individual content to be sent internationally but from the developing to the developed world and vice versa. Thirdly, the uploading (open-source revolution, blogging, podcasting) advent allowed anyone who wanted to be the author of their content to be an author and actually send it via internet all around the world.

One thing that strikes me about what Friedman describes is the unintentional consequences that occurs from entrepreneurship/innovation. For example besides Reagan's military build up that caused the USSR to go bankrupt and thus fall; he cites the advent of personalized PC as anti-totalitarian mechanism that eventually brought the fall of communism because of the free speech that can be had anonymously and thus hard to suppress by the totalitarian propaganda machine. Also, he cites the rise of really cheap international communication from the tech bubble and the government telecommunication deregulations act of 1996, that led create oversupply fiberoptic cables, which when the demand did not materialize eventually led cheaper telecommunications for consumers.

I found his thesis that bubbles are good for innovation an intriguing concept. According to his thesis, unrealistic bubbles causes a flood of money toward that overinvested sector to such an extent that it creates fast innovation from that sector. When the bubble eventually bursts, investors who invested in the bubble will get hurt but it creates such a cheap commodity that eventually consumers will benefit from it. The question now is does this extend to all sectors or is it true only for start-up sectors? That is, will we see innovation in real estate bubble akin to the tech bubble, if yes, I wonder what that would be? And if the bubble is good for innovation will Obama's financial regulation kill this spirit of innovation? Or will avoiding the pain that a bubble cause be good enough reason to have these regulation?

Fifthly, Friedman describes the process of outsourcing from India secondary to the Y2K, tech bubble, tech crash that created the comfort level for India technological brain as well as the means to freely cash in on these brains via the fiber optic cheap communication lines.

Sixthly, Friedman cites the fact that China has become fully a capitalist country by joining the WTO. Because China has the cheapest and most populace population in the world, they will be a target for cheap good manufacturing for decades to come. He states multi-nationals will definitely have to deal with China one way or another or they will be out of business. Friedman is optimistic that since China is now a capitalist country, democracy will surely follow. Just like any good globalization advocate, he cites off-shoring jobs to China really in the end is good for the US because the jobs oversees keeps jobs here. I think the US population really needs to be more highly skilled in the long run because it is clear from the business aspect of things that low-skill manufacturing jobs will by off-shored to China were the labor is cheaper and thus it is a big competitive advantage for multi-national firms to place them there.

Seventhly, Friedman talks about Wal-mart and their hyper-efficient global supply chain, especially now that Walmart's computers can talk to their suppliers computers. It works like this whenever you buy something the bar code in the item talks to the computer and the walmarts computer automatically links to their suppliers globally to tell them to produce that item. He states that this is a flattener event because with a hyper-efficient global supply chain companies can now buy their products from the cheapest most reliable source anywhere in the world and get it to the market (Walmart). So this allows suppliers to be global in their reach.

Eighthly, Friedman talks about UPS being the global supply chain manager for small to medium size business thereby allowing any company in the world to act as if it is a big multi-national firm with their own global supply chain. Firms sign up to UPS global supply chain and UPS does the global supply chain background for the company.

Ninthly, Friedman talks about Googles push for global search engines that allows anyone from anywhere in the world to seek global information from anything in the world. What differentiates Google from other search engines is apparently it finds stuff that is more relevant to your particular search whereas prior to google the search were more haphazard. Also, advertisers can have more targeted audience based on your specific search. The downside to this is of course the lack of privacy since anyone can look up information on you anytime they want. It is therefore appropriate that reality-TV has now become the most watch TV there is because essentially people at this point are living in such an open society that there is no use hiding once information.

Tenthly, Friedman talks about what is accelerating the flattening process. In his analysis, he points to VoIP, videoconferencing, digitization of all information, wireless capabilities, file-sharing all is making communication internationally so cheap that international business barriers are no virtually none existent. I think the coolest capability in this chapter was the wireless capability in having your wireless phone be your credit card, future ID card too.

In his third chapter, Friedman talks about the three convergence of the world is flat. The first convergence is that all 10 forces have simply converged without prior planning it is as if it were a serendipitous moment occurred in 2000. The second convergence event change company culture from heirachial to much more collaborative nature. He hypothesize it is companies who innovate in using this new internet infrastructure in new and meaningful ways that will get ahead. Third convergence that he discovered is that awakening of pent up entrepreneurial yearnings from China, India, and former USSR that were hidden by communism/socialism of the past.

Friedman's fourth chapter deals on what the flattening world means for "us" (government, companies, and individuals. He states that in this flattening world, multi-national companies no longer have loyalty to single country because they do business globally. So politicians in their effort to keep jobs homegrown will be at odds with multi-national business because they just want the cheapest source of labor.

This is good for investors and capital in general because capital always seek to be more efficient in its use, but bad for labor. That is homegrown labor will lose out but not the companies that hire them. He cites Wal-mart versus Costco as an example of this confusing conundrum. Wal-mart seeks to flatten its labor to such an extent that it skimps on paying labor a decent wage and healthcare benefits. Although this is bad for Wal-mart employees, this is great for Wal-mart consumers (especially lower middle class), global supply chain, and most importantly it shareholders because their profit margins are high. Costco on the other hand, has half the profit margin of Walmart but they are fairer to their employees. But a lower profit margin, also means they have to cater their services to more middle class population instead of a lower middle class. The IP world also has to change because collaboration of the present means their is more than one corporation/individual who should get patented today.

But although the flattening of the present is good for business, it proposes challenges for government, in that, who are we to support for America should we support small companies that are 100% home grown or should America support multi-nationals that only commits 50% of labor force at home but brings more profits in both for the company as well as giving consumers a break via a greater global supply chain as well as economies of scale?

My answer to all of this quandaries is that innovation is the future of America with a large entrepreneurial force so government should foster the environment of innovation as best it can and let the innovators innovate. The labor that gets left behind in America will be for unique niches that can afford to be patriotic because that is what they are selling; but for the most part labor is dead and entrepreneurship is the new labor of the 21 century. But this also means that education in the US needs to be tops to compete with the world; but unlike India and China, I think experiential learning perhaps in the summer time is equally important to feed children's imagination. If we are to continue to be the innovators of the world, imagination needs to be fostered as well as the technical skill necessary to compete. And for kids, imagination really comes from a sense of play. The American 21st century really belongs to the right-brained people of the world.

America and Free Trade - Even though the forces outsourcing and offshoring to India and China have arrived because of Free Trade, Friedman feels that David Ricardo thesis of comparative advantage still holds true. That is, Free Trade still allows the pie to increase. But the increasing pie is driven largely by knowledge workers who are innovative. They are the people who see the need in this ever increasing pie and plug the need. The one who will lose out will be the low-skilled laborers whose job will outsourced to India or offshored to China because they have thousands of low-skilled laborers. He cites the SEO (service engine optimizers as prime example of this trend). SEO have become and industry on to itself with the advent of google within the last 5 years.

So who will and won't be effected in this new world? He cites three types of workers. The first type are the highly specialized and special workers who will not go away because they are needed (entertainers, brain and heart surgeons), the next type of worker has to do with people who work at the local level. There jobs are likely to stay put because they work locally ( servers, garbage collectors, dentist, physicians, nurses). The third type can be outsourced because they can be digitalized, automated so they can go to where it is the cheapest. So, he asked what kind of people will succeed in this new environment? The answer are people who like collaborate/orchestrate the diverse clients, global supply chain, and multi-ethnic workers, people who like to synthesize disparate information into new creative ideas, people who can explain complex products in a simplistic way, people who can leverage the power of technology to be more effective/efficient in their day to day dealings, people who can adapt their transferable skill from one project to the next, and people who are passionate about their jobs, and people who can use global platform to solve local issues. One thing that is good about this development is that one truly has to love what one does instead of ho-humming because only the person who breaths and lives his job is going to survive in this "new world". If I would advice my kids right now on what to do, I would say that you can be anyone you want to be you just need entrepreneurial skills to get there. Like, I said in my previous paragraph, this new world the "new m.c." are now entrepreneurs even if they are working for a company. They need to constantly challenge themselves to grow.

Policy wise what does this mean? I think the US government should favor small and medium-size business more and more because this is where innovation occurs the most as well as jobs are usually going to be more local instead of international. The way I see it, it behooves multi-national firms to go international because it is the cheapest way for them to become more efficient and grow. The US government should be pro-innovation!!!!!

Chapter seven deals with how we are going to get our kids ready for the new middle class. What kind of educational edge do kids of the future need to compete in this new middle class world. Since the right-brain kids will inherit this new kingdom, the most important trait is the desire to learn, passion about your chosen field and the innate curiosity to know more. According to Friedman, the US as a country is rightly poised to take advantage of this new world because, we have open and flexibility that is hard to duplicate by other countries. Specifically, we have the best research universities on earth and we have the most research universities on earth, we have the capital markets in the world in the NYSE and Nasdaq that reward companies on it who are the most innovative by infusion of cash as well as stringent IP laws to reward innovators who have products that the market wants. We also have amazing venture capital support for the most promising companies and flexible labor laws so the flow of labor goes to where it is needed. And last but not least, politically, the US is stable. So in the end the US has a high-trust environment in which risk-taking is encouraged.

Chapter eight deals what is lacking in America right now the risks its position as the leader in innovation. He cites the US lacks highly skilled science and engineering students who make the backbone of technological innovation. The reason this is happening because it is no longer cool to be a scientist like it was during the NASA golden age as well American elementary schools lagging behind in math and science subjects. Besides lacking strength in the fundamentals, students now lack a work ethic/ a sense of delayed gratification to get ahead. There is apparently also a lack of basic research funding by the government and national internet infrastructure. There is also a growing gap between the best public schools and the worst public schools due to it largely being a product of propertty local taxes. I really am in favor a national reform in which education needs to be made competitive via school vouchers and charter schools instead of funding public schools that do not work.

Chapter nine deals with the fixes he thinks the US should undertake to fix this issue which includes a political leadership the can galvanize the need for math and science workers, policy that encourages entrepreneurial transferable skill workers which include portable retirement plans, health care (done), govt subsidies to retrain low-wage earners in community colleges to prepare them to enter a more global competitive workforce. He also proposes to continue the US pro immigration policies toward people who are smart PhD so they can innovate and their kids can innovate in the US. He proposes that US corporation use their size advantages to be better stewards of society such as provide employees continuing education so their skills will be up-to-date and not stagnate and thus irrelevant in a flat society. Lasty, he asks parents to be more responsible toward their children in terms discipline and teaching them the value of delayed gratification.

Chapter ten deals with developing countries and globalization. Friedman states that developing countries with the best chance to succeed in this new world need to be culturally tolerant and accepting of outside influences and change to what the world's best practices are. This is also the reason why the middle east will lag behind because it tends to insulate itself from "global best practices." The jobs are going to go where the best-educated workforce with the most competitive infrastructure and environment for creativity and supportive government are.

Chapter eleven deals with successful companies need to do to stay successful in a globalized world. The first advice is to know its core competencies and focus on that only. Secondly, small companies and individuals should know and use technology to their full advantage so they can use it to compete with multi-national companies. Thirdly, big companies need to act small by allowing their customers to be active in the creation and production process that they will buy (self-directed customers). Fourthly, companies need to be able to collaborate with other companies in order to add value to what they are selling. Fifthly, companies need to outsource as part of their strategy anything that is not their core competency not simply to save money.

Chapter twelve deals with the fact that globalization was first resisted because it was seen as Americanization of the world but with the advent of uploading via blogging and podcasting local cultural diversity can now be represented in the internet and satellite and thus be preserved and even exported internationally. The people who are most likely to take advantage of this phenomenon are people of the diaspora who left their countries in search of better opportunities abroad.

Chapter thirteen deals with Friedman's theory of how global supply chain in the 21st century will be a deterrent to war (conflict prevention). Because countries with an extensive global supply chain whose economy is based on it, they will think twice in going to war and disrupt their economy and thus could act as a political instability in their own countries. This is the reason that I think China and the US will not go to war in the near future because our economies are too entertwined besides China does not want to forfeit all the money that we owe them. Friedman states examples 2002 India and Pakistan nuclear showdown that was eventually defused because India noticed that besides the more obvious nuclear threat of Pakistan, to go to war with Pakistan would have destroyed their IT economy. Another example that he cites is the detente that is occurring in Taiwan and China, due to their manufacturing global supply chain as well as their intertwined economies.

But, countries that are not part of the global supply chain in the 21st century such as countries in the middle east and Africa. The reason Al-Quaeda is such a world threat is they are using the forces of globalization to create a Virtual Caliphate and are using small acts of terror to seem bigger than what it is by uploading it on to the internet as well as connecting small cells into a huge international network by recruiting, training, global donoring on the internet. These are people who are angry that though they are supposed to be superior due to their religion, they are way behind from the rest of the world. The key to fixing this issue is to get rid of the totalitarian regimes and somehow get these countries as part of the global supply chain.

Friedman states that America needs to still be the beacon of hope to the world by remaining the optimistic dream machine that is our birthright. He states that the reason Bush was unpopular internationally was during his presidency he was seen as exporting fear not hope. For countries that are not part of the global supply chain, the key to keeping their populace from being terrorist is giving them dignity to be an individual that they see themselves ie: hope of success in their own countries. He states oil producing countries are the most undemocratic repressive regimes there is (Iran and Saudi Arabia). And perhaps world independence from nonrenewable energy is as much a green issue as a national security issue. Lastly, he prescribes that role models who have made it from disadvantage countries be more visible.

THE WORLD IS FLAT, it cost Rs.500 in India

fact loaded book, so much information compressed into short digestible clips. The information is about the changes which occurred with the advent of Internet, what changes Software developers had to make, what changes Business houses had to face, redesigning their traditional run companies into modern global world companies. The many opportunities provided to multinational companies with the broadband connectivity of INDIA and CHINA and other parts of the world.

This book is a first person narrative, it is like reading a report, there is lot of care taken to give as much background of all the major leading concepts of remodeling of already prevailing business and the new startups,the bust and boom days of internet. Maya Gorman is the assistant who deserves credit to arrange facts from so many diverse sources used to compile this wonderful informative business book. What Thomas L.Friedman did was stitch with his insight all information gathered by his assistant into chapters and sub-headings of cohesive attractive and interesting look at new things in business today. This book converted nicely small stories of so many surviving companies into saleable commercial gripping narrative.

Journalist and book writer is Mr.Friedman, he has keen sense of word flow and good grasp of technical facts and details, he converts supply chain network of Wal-Mart into a very grand story like narrative and grips his readers firmly with his constant words asking us to visualize and think and generate a torrent of ideas in the bargain come flooding to us. I was kept glued till the completion of my reading in 3 days, because the pace do not let up, as many things presented well are quiet readable, specially all parts where the writer is discussing BUSINESS is very running, innovative and forcing us to look at the evolving frontiers of business in the new world. Multinationals, multi-synergies, outsourcing, insourcing, globalization are all watch words of this book presented explicitly well.

Me being a keen chaser of lucre (money)enjoyed reading all of it, it opens up our eyes and mind and generates ideas well, I enjoyed all this, I don’t say this book is a must for all who hold decision making positions in business companies, but this book is a must for everyone who are fascinated with INTERNET and what it is doing today and what potential it can have in itself.

This book will open eyes to new way of thinking and doing things, this book will help in understanding days to come in future business world, it has lot of useful tid-bits, all assembled about top business houses, like Jetblue, HP, Rolls Royce, GM, GE, Microsoft, Walt-Mart, I will not give all the names of people and companies, but I must say this book is very useful TODAY, TOMORROW, DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

I hate sermons, specially when I am paying for them, after all I am paying money to make this book a successful publication, but I concede the sermons were short in this book, they were not lengthy and dragging, its not much sweat lost, but there is a attempt to bring a few topics in this book which are not researched well, rumors are printed as facts, there are some places attempts are to spoon feed readers into accepting the writers point of view. Anyway we have all our own shortcomings, we can ignore it in view general beneficial things this book contains.

Economics of this book is there are more benefits to be derived from it than some loose points. Any work of we feeble humans always has loose ends, the big picture should be always in sight, the English is very nice and crispy, there are flowing sentences running like smooth currents with special care given to explain and use all the latest net worthy terminology. The language is very contemporary and hence interesting to read.

My mention of Maya Gorman is very important, as much work in this book was done in gathering real information and blended well by narrative of Mr.Friedman, there is a immense load of information very useable and real we get from this book, to gather all that information is not a mean task, the profits are large if we learn to use this information constructively.

Now that we have analyzed briefly the usability of this book with its content, lets also see if this book is worthy to be stored in our personal library, I know it is a valuable asset, every library must have this book because it can be used as a reference work for many students who are in search of information. This book is fantastic as a reference material for many days in our future world.

Yo information stitched correctly will take a very useful shape always !!!

read Lexus first, but this one is just as important, and just as well written

Globalization has made the world a smaller place, where Americans are not only competing with each other but also with those graduating in India, China, Brazil, Russia, and the rest of the world. The Internet has changed things to real-time, disseminating information more quickly than has ever been done in human history, and so up-to-date information is a critical source of competitive advantage.

This is an tedious summary of everything you already know about globalization, wrapped around a series of pet phrases and personal anecdotes that are not poignant, relevant, illustrative, or particularly apt. Perhaps it is because this book is a couple years old now (though mine was an updated edition), but for a book that purports to be so prophetic, this really seems like last century's news. You'd have to be either very isolated or very old to be shocked by any of these dusty observations.

I suppose it is because Mr. Friedman thinks these are new or profound ideas that he feels the need to summarize them in catch phrases, which he then repeats until they take on a Seussian absurdity. Seriously, how many times does he have to write "The fall of the wall"? I'm not sure if Mr. Friedman thinks he's writing to people who need constant repetition or if he just likes pages, but this could have been a much shorter book.

This book came out when I had already covered Silicon Valley as a journalist and author for several years. He states his thesis in the intro, which struck me as rather obvious.

Learned nothing from the rest of his book. In fact, saw a great deal of plagiarism from other books I'd read and authors I know. That's Friedman's reputation. He comes out a year late with his ideas, which he has borrowed from many others already.

Then he'd go on TV and talk to the clueless Charlie Rose

"Fucking flat-earthers...Oh wait, that's not what he means? All right, maybe I'll read it."

That was me about five or so years ago when friends kept insisting I read The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Finally, when my wife recently bought tickets to a local Friedman talk, I resolved to read the damn thing.

I'm glad I did. It's really good. I'm not saying it's prefect (I'll get to that in a minute), but this is a must read at least for a certain few people with their heads in the clouds. For one, it's a great book for folks who don't understand what has happened since the advent of the internet. Give this as a gift to your dad or gramps. If they don't use it as a doorstop, they'll get a hell of an education on the modern ways of business and sociability.

The other group of people that need to read this, or really any book like this, are those cretins who troll, lurk and spew upon the comment section of "news" articles online. Everybody seems to have an indisputable, unshakable opinion that they take for fact and which they feel the need to spray all over the internet. They are the modern version of every family's uncle from the good ol' days who would show up at family events and holidays seemingly for the sole purpose of annoying everyone else while starting an argument with another alpha male about politics, religion, economics and any other myriad of topics that most sane people know is off-limits around family and friends you wish to retain as such. The real crime in all this is that they don't usually know what the fuck they're talking about. They have one biased, uninformed talking point on whatever the subject is they'll let you hear it.

So yes, I do feel like a book like this is helpful for a segment of the population, especially in these particularly stupid days in the American dark ages. The problem is, at 600+ pages, this book is 300 pages longer than it needs to be.



The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is not brief. That's because it's written as a journalist would write a book. This is a book-length feature article. Friedman makes a statement, maybe backs it up with data, and then gives an example via a full-blown biography on a business or entrepreneur. It's all good stuff. Some of it's even enjoyable. But it's more than necessary for what's actually being said. He could've done more with less. I honestly doubt I would've gotten through this if I hadn't gone with the audiobook version and had a cubic buttload of yard work to do.

Now, that's not to say didn't enjoy this or that I didn't get something out of it. I did. I am getting old and so some of these whippersnappers with their new fangled gadgets befuddle me. However, I did grow up in the age when personal computers were first coming into the home. I even had a Commodore 64, baby! So I'm not at a total loss in the computer age. On the other hand, I am a bit of a recluse and I'm not big into global politics and the economy, so sadly I am having to catch up on that and a book like this taught me a thing or two. So, let's call it a good stepping stone for the uninitiated.

Nửa đầu sách hoàn toàn không để lại ấn tượng.

Tác giả chỉ nêu lại những thứ rất-quen-thuộc trong thời đại mình: chuỗi cung, mạng máy tính, UPS, outsourcing, insourcing, e-commerce... (đúng tinh thần "Tóm lược Lịch sử Thế giới TK XXI" - nhiều quá không nhớ nỗi ^^!).
Người đọc thì chán còn tác giả thì kể như "OMG! I have never seen anything like it before. It's a miracle!" =.=

Những phần còn lại rất hay, bớt cường điệu hơn, đa phần về nước Trung Quờ như cạnh tranh, tài nguyên, chiến tranh, chuỗi cung ứng. Mà đúng thiệt vậy, bởi thật sự anh thứ CS là tâm điểm, trigger của rất nhiều vấn đề hiện tại trên thế giới. Đặc biệt thích đoạn tác giả miêu tả mối quan hệ TQ và Mỹ: Ban đầu tôi sợ sói, sau này tôi khiêu vũ cùng sói và ngay bây giờ tôi muốn trở thành sói.

12 năm sau ngày sách ra mắt, dù kỷ nguyên số đang diễn ra cực mạnh, công cụ hôm nay sẽ lỗi thời vào ngày mai nhưng Thế Giới Phẳng dường như không quá cũ. Những vấn nạn toàn cầu hóa gây ra vẫn còn rất nóng, đặc biệt vấn đề Trung Đông, môi trường.

Nói chung là thỏa mãn.

Thomas Friedman's wonderful book and theory about how the world is flat, meaning that through techonology and other developments, global citizens are now closer than ever with our neighbours around the world with capability to do start-ups, innovative transglobal innovations and more. This is not so much a futurist book, but how Friedman sees the world as already connected and some proposals on how we can move forward with what is already in place.

I fucking hate Thomas Friedman with every fiber of my being.