I finished the non-fiction book The World is Flat by Pulitzer-prize winning author Thomas Friedman a couple weeks ago. No, Friedman isn’t trying to argue that the
world is physically flat. But economically and socially, in the 21st
century, the world is more level than it has ever been before. This, Friedman
argues, is a result of multiple “flatteners” that have collectively caused the
globalization of today. There are many flatteners, so I’ll just point out a
few: the fall of the Berlin Wall, off-shoring, internet uploading. Another
important part of globalization is outsourcing, where the countries with the
strong economies, or service nations, such as the United States, seek
out-of-country employees to do jobs that do not require unique and expensive
skills. So for example, many companies outsource customer service call centers
to India because of the low costs and yet high quality of labor. Every corner
of the globe is now connected to each other because of these flatteners. After
reading this book, my perspective of the world changed immensely. I began to
see the impacts of globalization everywhere I went. It affected me personally,
too; I had recently joined a coalition of entering college freshman from a
number of schools (from the likes of UChicago, Yale, and Johns Hopkins) who
launched an entirely student led website about current events and politics
called The Orientation. We have reached hundreds of thousands of views on the
website, and 1,000 followers on Facebook after publishing articles weekly in just
about a month. This feat is especially incredible because I have never met a
single other staff member in person- in addition to our different schools, we
come from all across the nation. But we’ve become successful by constant
collaboration through a Facebook group, messenger and email. It was only until
after I read Friedman’s book that I realized how I was contributing to the
globalization of the world.
In
addition, today’s flat world affects me in the sense that it is my family’s
main source of income. My dad works for one of the leading network architecture
companies in China. However, the nearest physical office building is all the
way in San Jose, California. This makes the commute quite difficult for my dad.
But thanks to today’s flat world, he can work effectively from home, with just
a few business trips a year. His architecture design team includes members from
Israel, California, Beijing, the UK, and Bangalore, India. Globalization allows
the team to run 24/7 since all the group members live in different time zones.
I had always known that my dad worked from home, and I would occasionally hear
people with British or Chinese accents over the phone as he worked in his office.
But it was only until after reading this book that I inquired about how exactly
my dad worked, and it was only until after reading this book that I appreciated
the marvels of modern technology for benefitting communication and
collaboration, and for sustaining my family.
Friedman’s
book isn’t a page turner, for sure, and there were many nights where I would fall
asleep with its pages sprawled open with neglect. It was also incredibly
repetitive; either he forgot that he had already mentioned a point in a previous
chapter or he was just excessively adding emphasis. For those reasons, I choose
not to rate the book 5 stars. The thought of accomplishment from finishing such
a behemoth tome helped me finish the entire book without skimming or skipping
chapters. I also powered through with the help of Friedman’s constant reproach
of the faults within the Bush administration in adapting to the 21st
century. In one of numerous examples, he criticized the isolationism, air of
superiority and quest for hegemony that the United States dawned after the
terrorist attacks of 9/11. I’ll leave the rest to you to imagine the potency of
his incessant bias, which I found to be quite amusing, though his claims were
not entirely untrue.
Read this book, if not in its entirety,
then at least the crucial flatteners in the beginning, so that they can realize
that we live in and must adapt to the ever globalizing world. The World is Flat is one of the very few
books that has pragmatically changed my life. Though it is for sure not the
most deep and profound book I have read, it is one of the most “hands-on” life
altering books I have ever read. It helped me see the infinite supply of human
resources beyond political boundaries. It helped me appreciate the vast expanse
of knowledge the internet grants to even the least educated people. It helped
me become more independent- I no longer need to depend on specialists when I
can teach things myself- and yet at the same time, more interconnected – I can
communicate effortlessly, and instantly with anyone in the world. This is a
must read for all, especially for the young generation, or anyone about to
journey into the flat, globalized world.
Rating:
4.5
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