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

Holy sh... this book went on and on. And on. The world is flat, oh yes! I see! But how flat is the world again, Mr. Friedman? Tell me once again, exactly how flat is it? Really flat? You don't say!

Maybe it's just me being a grad student for too long, but I prefer my nonfiction books to have a list of references. Perhaps a footnote or two. But this book is just a series of anecdotes with some jargon thrown in (Bangalore...curiosity quotient...flatteners...in-forming...Bangalore...compassionate flatism...glocalization...Bangalore).

But that's apparently what he intended. If you made it to page 629 in the 2006 version (bonus flatness!), you might have noticed that Friedman approvingly quotes Stanley Fischer as saying that "one good example is worth a thousand theories." Uh, what? That doesn't make any sense. Freidman thinks so, though; this book is a thousand good examples that add up to a few coherent theories.

Maybe the topic of globalization is just too broad to write concisely about, or maybe Friedman was looking at way too many trees rather than seeing the forest. But this book annoyed the hell out of me, and it only got worse as it went on.

Not to say I wouldn't recommend it. I mean, read chapters 1-4, then just pick and choose what interests you in the middle, and then read 15-17 because those actually say something new. The book thoroughly covers globalization and the business world, and America's place in the new economy. It covers a lot of ground. And mostly, the ideas are great and well-founded.

I did get a little squeamish at times, when Friedman's advocacy of free trade borders on trickle-down meritocratic patriotic Republicanisms. (See p. 496: "The inspirational power of a local business success story is incalculable: There is no greater motivator for the poor than looking at one of their own who makes it big and saying: "If she can do it, I can do it.'") But his heart is in the right place, I think. (See p. 265: "...a policy of free trade, while necessary, is not enough by itself. It must be accompanied by a focused domestic strategy aimed at upgrading the education of every American, so that he or she will be able to compete for the new jobs in a flat world.") I can agree with that.

But really, if you're under 30 you need to read this book like you need a hole in the head. You've been living it. Go read a blog.

It was one of the best books I read. Although i disagree with some of the content, the book displays history of the past 20 years in a wonderful way. It also reveals the comprehensive meaning, te pros and cons of globalization and is impact on business, politics, individuals, terrorism, .... I learned a lot from this book , it gave me some ideas to implement in my work.

Started this book over a year ago and just finished it today. How many times does Friedman have to say "the world is flat" for us to get it? I've never read a book with so many anecdotal and innocuous stories just to prove that the title is far from misnomer.

Most of the content in this book just seemed like common sense after reviewing modern econ theories and histories. This resulted in skimming about 1/4 of the book, mainly the stories that repeatedly resulted in "Hey guess what, here is yet more proof that the world is flat"

I can't bash the whole book though.

While the story of globalization presented by Friedman is about 300 pages too long, it does contain some great advice on how America can change its policies to better enhance innovation among its future workforce. Information about the perfect storm facing the American workforce was intriguing and alarming. Stories of how less developed countries can harness our new world were encouraging.

Great for someone unfamiliar with modern economic theories and initially bitter to globalization. If you've read anything on modern global trends and economic principles released in the last 3 years, this book is not worth the price tag. Also, if you are familiar with "The internets" you probably have already figured out most of what Friedman is talking about.

I'm sure the stories presented in this book were revolutionary a few years ago... but apparently in a flat world books about globalization go out of date rather quickly.

As of December 14,

I started reading this novel by Thomas Friedman sometime last week. My hopes from reading this were to basically gain a coherent understanding of how the ideas of success and business are now becoming more commonplace around the world. The beginning of the book details the founding and establishment of InfoSys, a technology solutions company based in Bangalore, India. One of the founders tells Friedman about his experiences and how he came from, essentially, nothing to create this growing tech empire. So far, I would imagine it to be a difficult read for those uninterested in the subject, but I rather enjoy reading such books. So far so good.


As of February 8,

In this portion of the book, Friedman narrates different eras of globalization which include the Triangle Trade routes in the 16th century and even the Silk Road. Through these examples, he explains the process of information exchange and the effect it has on businesses to perform various duties from remote locations. So far, this book has been very fascinating and provided a new perspective on understanding how the world works. Stay tuned for more!

As of February 11,

This next chapter provided several historical instances of what Friedman believes are the ten influencing factors that led to globalization and world flattening. These include events such as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, outsourcing eras, and the establishment of Netscape. This section is truly interesting as it provides a unique and generally ignored perspective on the effects of these sorts of historical examples. Friedman continues to impress and prove his thesis that the playing field for all on this Earth may be becoming increasingly level. Stay tuned, folks!

As of February 20,

Friedman begins this chapter by acknowledging the fact that these factors listed previously are not the sole reason of the world's flattening. Friedman explains that as each of the factors came together, they had to spread and take root to create the environment rich for flattening. He credits politics and technological advancements, in general, for these results. What I mainly took away from this chapter is the fact that Friedman is able to understand his limitations and add on to his argument with more facts and examples. I feel that gives him more credibility, resulting in a more effective argument. Let's see how he continues.

As of February 26,

Friedman starts this section of the book by exploring foreign students, looking to work in America. He strongly notes that this is one of he first times in history where we see that talent has become more important than geography in determining a person’s opportunity in life. Friedman also discusses how the idea of outsourcing has contributed to this as several companies, such as Boeing Jets, in allowing for more skilled workers in more diverse locations. Through these examples, Friedman demonstrates the need for individuals and businesses to be able to compete in a global marketplace. These chapters are starting to develop a more modern global aspect to his argument; an ingenious strategy to laying out his plans, if I do say so myself.

As of March 14,

This next portion of the novel dives into some ethical situations. Going off his point of outsourcing in the previous section, Friedman discusses with several theorists whether this expansion of both labor and opportunity can lead to exploitation and corruption. He cites the 2003 Indian-Indiana issue to exemplify his contention. In this story, an Indiana company made the decision to outsource its workforce to India because of a need to upgrade their unemployment system, essentially taking work from Americans and giving them to Indians. Additionally, Friedman compares the ethics in terms of how the workforce is treated and viewed in developing, on-the-rise countries. Friedman's consideration for a new, more subjective argument allows for a unique, yet slightly jarring new perspective on the world today. We'll see how it all pans out, I suppose.

As of March 31,

Thanks to the "incentives" from Mr. Herring, I determined to increase the pace at which I read this very informative piece. This next large chunk of the book focused on the idea of globalization of course, but in a collaborative sense. Friedman argues that "the most disruptive force of all" is the act of uploading and sharing information via the internet. He cites several examples of services and companies that have following in this trend and encouraged this global cooperation such as open source development, blogs, wikis, and especially social media. Friedman asserts that these tools are expanding to more developing countries and economies, leading to more shared knowledge in the world today. This section was truly appealing as Friedman discusses tools that we, in a 1st world country, consider omnipresent and, possibly superfluous, but that, in the right manner, can create definite change and resolve conflict in the world today as more and more people are connected.

As of April 16th,

Well over spring break and this past week, I managed to crank out the last 400 or so pages of this book, and instead of reviewing all the chapter I have read, I am simply and briefly going to evaluate the relevance and quality of Friedman's assertion. So throughout the novel, Friedman is asserting the claim that the world's economic "playing field" is leveling, due to many factors such as globalization and technological advancements. This evidence holds very true in our day and age as we do see more and more great minds emerge from several third world countries. Additionally, Friedman cites several examples of tech advancements throughout history (most of which are discussed above) to prove his point. To keep it short, Friedman's argument is essentially rock-solid with abundant proof and brilliant analysis. The only issue I could possibly find is where he strayed off the path of the "debate" and began narrating examples of stories that hardly mattered and were almost seemed to "fluff" the true conditions of certain areas, such as how throughout the novel, he only describes an India that is a technological powerhouse and a rising world power, without addressing its corruption and poverty. Other than that, however, this was a fantastic read that truly provides a new perspective and outlook on our world.
Til next time,


Prakrit Shukla

If you haven't been paying attention over the past 10-15 years to the changing of the global marketplace, this book is a must read. Even if you have been aware of it, this book is worth a skim. Friedman explores the technological changes as well as the political values which have caused the US to start losing competitiveness to China and India. Progressive pro-business governments in those two countries (yes even China) have embraced technological change and allowed them to rapidly catch up with the US. If you don't believe it, this is a book you definitely should read.

These are my quick thoughts:

1. Even though the trends remain the same, it is amazing how dated this book has become just 2 years after it was published due to the global financial crisis and the continued advancement of technology. I think Friedman should write an updated version and instead of calling it The World is Flat he should call it The World is Fu**ed.

2. The book is probably 300 pages too long (I read the expanded and revised version), but it is a relatively quick read. Once you get his thesis (which doesn't take too long) you can breeze through the rest. Though Friedman is an engaging enough writer to keep your interest, there is a lot of redundancy.

3. If you are in the anti-progress, anti-science republican party, this may be a tough read, but it is very fair, give it a chance, even if Friedman does gloss over some of the not so good parts of China and India.

4. Friedman is the best journalist on the Middle East and the sections where he touches upon how technology and government innovation (or lack of) have effected the Middle East are among the most interesting.

5. You don't need to be interested in business to be interested in this book. It goes beyond business. Friedman is really talking about huge cultural shifts that are occuring which are leading to the US losing it's place as the world leader.

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.

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 first big mistake I made was deciding to buy the 2.0 edition of the book (updated and expanded). Redundancy is one of the book’s signature features so updating and expanding it only compounds the sins of this feature. My second big mistake was deciding to finish reading it after first running aground about half way through and taking a several month sabbatical to read more worthy books. All right I’m being testy. It wasn’t such a big mistake. Friedman is a smart guy but way too full of himself, the book’s title is sufficient evidence of that—The World Is Flat, too cute and not up to the belaboring it gets—and the false (on three fronts) humility of the subtitle. The book isn’t brief and it is not a history, nor is there any humility in the pretend irony of “A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century”. Indeed there is no humility in this book that isn’t a pretence designed to cast the author’s brilliance in finer relief. And the man thinks he is Adam set loose in a new conceptual world where he is entitled to name anything and everything. You can run out of fingers and toes, even if you borrow those of friends and family, counting the times Friedman begins a sentence or phrase with a variation of “something I like to call…” I don’t know in the whole history of publishing if there is a writer who claimed coining so many phrases, the majority of which are as pedestrian as they come. It’s not just “flat world” and the concept of “flattening” or “the coefficient of flatness,” it’s “Globalization 1.0” and it’s 2.0 and 3.0 descendents, it’s “In-forming”, it’s “glocalization,” it’s, oh, why go on. This book had all the makings of an outstanding essay or two or three very good Sunday Times magazine features. It’s got the trends in business, technology, and perhaps culture and politics right. It’s by turns inspiring, scary, and tediously bloated. It is a wearying, self-promotional exercise in over and over re-stating what��s became obvious twelve anecdotes and 34 declarations ago. The best part of the book and, for me, it’s only enduring redeeming value is its bookmark, a Valentine’s Day card, handmade by my fiancée. But I don’t think that came with everyone’s copy.

I'm not sure how this book escapes any high school political or economic class. It should a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y be required reading for any high school or college student. Period. It is the best descriptor of the world we live in. Although I'm sure Friedman is politically biased, it's leanings are far more subtle than anything that comes from the media - and far more interesting.

Friedman tells the story of ten things that demonstrate how our world is smaller and flatter. He acknowledges the world we live in, and challenges us to rise to the occasion. This is not an, "America is bad because it's rich" book but one that says, "stop doing what worked 30 years ago, because it's not 30 years ago anymore."

We are faced with the greatest opportunity since the great depression. How will we respond?

A challenging quote (p. 252):

"As you sort out and weigh your multiple identities...you have to decide: Do you prefer the Wal-Mart approach or the Costco approach? This is going to be an important issue in the flat world: Just how flat do you want corporations to be when you factor in all your different identities?"

Thomas L. Friedman accurately predicted the future almost 10 years ago. This book outlines the most important forces that shaped the world as we know it today. And reading it nowadays makes you appreciate all the little things we take for granted. We have come a long way since 10 years and now live in a very competitive and challenging world that doesn't wait for you if you're not running at a full sprint. One of my favorite parts of the book is when the author explains why certain countries still live in the past when they have so many resources and huge potential. He makes a clear distinction between dreams and memories and how one builds nations while the other destroys them.

The reason I'm giving this book 4 stars is because I felt that some parts where a little longer than they should be and that made it less entertaining to read. But overall, this is a book I definitely recommend to anyone that wants to understand how we have become so interconnected and dependent on each other.

To be honest, this is the very first book which is not compulsory textbooks that I've ever finished lol. The book contains a huge amount of knowledge and I really admire the author, Mr. Thomas L. Friedman, for his hard work to write the book. I took me almost years to finish it (so bad I am not a hard-working reader at all but I am trying to change it now) but it's worth my time. The book is about globalization, in which the author tried to convey the message that wherever you come from and whoever you are, you have an equal opportunity to participate in the world trade. It is the very first time I've ever heard about "outsourcing" as well as many other new places, new ideas and new definitions, thanks to the book.

The world has again changed a lot from the day the book was first issued in 2005 but at some point I think it still remains its value until today, especially for those who want to find out more about globalization.