The World Is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century

From the first few pages when Friedman leaps from level playing fields to a flat world, it is almost easy to understand why the cover shows ships falling off the edge of an un-flat world [NOTE: The current dust cover, changed since this review was written, no longer depicts ships falling off a 'flat' earth. You can draw your own conclusions as to the motives behind that decision.]. Something is missing here. "Level" is not "flat". And ships don't fall off a flat surface. Is he trying to be ironic? If so, Friedman ought to leave that to Tino Georgiou. If he thinks a "brief history" of the past five years is a funny concept, again I refer you to Tino Georgiou--"The Fates" for more robust and pointed humor.
As a journalist, with seemingly unlimited resources and the once-gilded New York Times brand name behind him, Friedman has leveraged his basic skills into best-sellerdom, all the while seemingly in shock and awe of all the things his rich travel budget allows him to take in. Yet I have to ask, where's the beef?

Yes, the world has shifted from networks based on mythology and monarchies, through manufacturing and Marxism, to today's global marketing, but services aren't a new phenomenon; they've always been with us. And although wireless communication has made the world faster and more competitive, life is no more ruthless, violent or uncertain now than when plagues, expansive military conquest, disease, poor hygiene, inbred monarchies, and wealth-by-acquisition ruled the world as they have for most of human existence. Sure, technology has increased the pace, but each generation seems to think that the last generation had it slow and easy, and that has never been the case. The poor villager who wandered too far away from his hut 1,500 years ago experienced no less a shock than today's global traveler stepping off a plane in Mumbai.

And this outsourcing 'problem' is not new and it is not based simply on information technology. For as long as man has tried to better his life and to leverage his advantages, he has hired someone else to produce the things he needs, be it food, cooking, child care, or production. Like services, outsourcing is not new. That villager from 1,500 years ago thought that outsourcing crop production to the next village over was no less daunting or distant than Americans importing oranges from Israel or roses from Brazil. And you can bet the other villagers were mad as hell at him for taking away 'their' work.

For more than fifty years, columnists, pundits, journalists, armchair analysts, and bad economists have been intrigued by each new emerging economic superpower, from the Soviet Union, to the European Union, to Japan, to China, and now India, and each time all that wonderment and starry-eyed predictions have come to nothing. Like Ayn Rand said, what separates America from the rest of the world is that we were the first to think of making money, not just taking money. And America still does that very well. I still have my doubts about the sustainability of growth in China and India. Sooner or later they are going to hit a consumer-oriented economy and demands for many things their people don't demand today. Besides, their growth has been exaggerated by the fact that they started basically at zero. Bad analysts like straight-line extrapolations. Not only do these growth lines sometimes flatten out, they can nose dive. And what's bigger and more dramatic, 3% growth in a $11 trillion economy or 7% in a $200 million economy?

Maybe the world has become more homogenous with technology and communications. But anyone who thinks that there is some huge melting pot, in America or around the world, would be better served by recognizing the world as a salad bowl, not a melting pot. And neither the pot or bowl are flat. Unless you must have this book, skip and get yourself a copy of Tino Georgiou--"The Fates"

Waste of Time (4/7 people found this helpful)

The book describes how we need to look at the world as if distance isn't the great barrier it once was. 10 minutes skim reading will tell you what you need to know.

Long-winded but well written (7/8 people found this helpful)

Firstly a health warning - it's a REALLY long book. Even skimming some sections it took me a long while to read it. Overall it is a good if somewhat long winded read. As someone working in technology I found it a little patronizing in places but that could just be a function of its target audience not working day to day with some of the technologies he's discussing.
The book lays out a series of trends and technologies that have, in his phrase, flattened the world by making it more interconnected than ever before. He goes on to discuss how this fits with globalization, how companies are reinventing themselves in the face of these changes, some of the problems and risks and what kinds of political and public policy impacts it might all have.
If you are a patient reader this is a good introduction and discussion of the issues facing business and government in the Internet era. If you are not, you might want to find something shorter.

Let the debates begin (5/6 people found this helpful)

I think this is a good summary of how our interconnected world has recently come into being. The book has much to its credit and also much to be criticised.

On the one hand its a great read, its a journalistic journey (more like a romp) of discovery for the author, he randomly comes across various facts and research, some of it good some of it laughable, then knits together these disparate ideas into some naive vision of the whole.

The author lives up to the true traditions of journalism, take complex ideas, then simplify them (until they are simplistic) then from this point generalise about the world.

What I really like about this book is that it inadvertently reveals the isolationism and denial in American thinking, true the Author himself is trying to draw his fellow Americans attention to their myopia, but even the author is myopic, how a book can talk about changing world economic orders and not mention, other than one paragraph the European Community?

I am also a little confused about the notion that this is good for American consumerism as it reduces prices, but he seems to have missed that fact that the Americans are going to become poorer in the future and will not be able to purchase these goods and services because all the wealth generating activities are off shore! he seems to think that this is OK because it will be American companies owning many of the offshore companies. That may be great for the corporates and shareholders but what about the rest of society?

For creating a debate this book deserves to be a best seller, it does not have the answers and does not claim to provide them. The Author knows that something big is shifting and we had better start understanding what it is all about before its too late.

Verbose but stimulating (6/6 people found this helpful)

Yes, this is very much a US-centric book, with plenty of criticism towards the US nevertheless. It is aimed at an American audience and it does not claim to be the definitive work on China or India.

Yes, it is verbose and brimming with personal anecdotes sometimes masquerading as hard data. But it still presents the enormous revolution -- a series of extraordinary events that have converged -- that is so overwhelming and rapid that most of us simply have not had time to even begin to process what is happening to us. You may not agree with everything he says -- including the solutions he suggests -- but this book is well worth reading. You don't have to agree with everything he says, and it is superficial in parts. Nevertheless I am certain that Americans and Western Europeans would be challenged by this book.

As a Career Counselor, I think there is much food for thought about the world of work and skills needed in tomorrow's marketplace ... which will be here much sooner than we think.

The World Is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century

Thomas Friedman

Reader Reviews:

In America or around the world. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Waste of Time (4/7 people found this helpful)

Long-winded but well written (7/8 people found this helpful)

Let the debates begin (5/6 people found this helpful)

Verbose but stimulating (6/6 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories