If only I wasn't so obsessive/compulsive about finishing things I start I never would have read this book. I don't like the self-important way this guy writes, and I don't think his metaphor about technology being a "flattener" of the world is at all clever. I don't like the way he divides each chapter into segments so it's like you are just reading a bunch of lists with very weak transitions (Michael says this is because he's a columnist.) I don't like the way he waits until the very end to mention the effects of globalization on the environment and poor people. I don't like the lens of business, in which the ultimate goal of our lives seems to be competition. I learned a little bit from it, mostly from anecdotes about technology or maverick entrepreneurs, but overall the read was long and painful.

It is quite true in his explanation that the world is increasingly smaller than it has ever been due to the development of the Internet and the digital world. I like his style of writing though sometimes it is not really concise. But other than that, this book is easy to follow.

In my perspective, the world could never be entirely flat or even if it could be flat, this scenario could not happen during this century. In fact, war, poverty, political view or even culture clash plays a big role against this process of flattening. As I moved along these pages, the only thing I could notice is that Friedman continually tried to describe the process of flattening but he seemed to ignore that there could be a real force that could resist to this change - human. There are many people who are trying to "de-flatten" this world, making each of us, each country tends to be more different and diverse rather than to be so similar and as flat as it could be.

Thật ra sách về thể loại này không phải tuýp yêu thích của mình và ngày trước mình đã từng drop 1 lần cũng chính cuốn này luôn. Vậy mà bây giờ đọc lại thấy nó hay. Cuốn sách này được xuất bản lần đầu vào năm 2005, mình ngạc nhiên vì những điều mà tác giả đề cập hay dự đoán trong cuốn sách đều y hệt thế giới hiện nay, tức 13 năm sau. Và ngạc nhiên hơn nữa là những công nghệ tiên tiến đc các nước phát triển áp dụng từ chừng đó năm trước, Việt nam mới phổ biến những thứ đó gần đây haizz. Tác giả xây dựng các chương phần của sách một cách rất hệ thống, phân tích sâu nhưng vẫn cho người đọc cái nhìn toàn cảnh về vấn đề “thế giới phẳng”, sách cho mình nhiều kiến thức thú vị, nhiều lúc đọc xong cái fact đó miệng không thể nào khép được vì quá ngạc nhiên ấy, mà tác giả có một sự thiên vị đặc biệt dành cho Ấn Độ trong cuốn sách của mình thì phải :). Dù sao thì đây là một cuốn sách hay và đáng đọc, mà sao chấm 4 sao rưỡi không được nhỉ?

Although I had planned to read this book for a while, it took a meeting of a book club to actually get me through it. The main idea (the world in which business operates today is radically different thanks to technology) could have been presented in much less space, but some of the details of how that is so are so interesting, it's almost worth dragging yourself all the way through the book. (I thought Chapter Two would never end.) For example, the section of chapter 2 on Walmart is fascinating. I also appreciated the central chapters on education, and those chapters contain one of my favorite statements: In China Bill Gates is their Brittany Spears while in the USA Britany Spears is our Brittany Spears. Scary if it's true, this book gives its American readers lots to worry about.