The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Author - Thomas L. Friedman ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Picador was reviewed on 11-Oct-2008.

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1) Paperback Book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Picador. I topple my hat to Mr. Petersen´s review for providing such intellectual critique to Mr. Friedman, who unfortunately played the extreme simplification card, for the sake of reaching broader audience, on the expense of supporting his argument with inaccurate facts alongside assumptions.

Although every person is entitled to present an argument of any topic, my problem with Mr. Friedman lies in his connoisseur attitude of almost all today´s challenging topics, be it economics, technology, business, terrorism, middle east, environment, and what the solutions will be, without having personal background credibility.

Ironically, Mr. Friedman enjoys broader credibility than expert economists in globalisation such as Messrs. Stiglitz and Bhagwati.

After all, Mr. Friedman´s simplification/inaccuracy combination is his own panacea.¤

2) Paperback Book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Picador. The ideas were unoriginal, not at all provocative, the conversational style annoyed me all the book did was tell me things I already knew. Perhaps the book would be good for people who have been walking around with their eyes completely shut, but for a book that claims to conduct a brief history of the 21st century, it did nothing for me but narrate a story from the view of an American.¤

3) Paperback Book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Picador. Friedman does a good job explaining how the world became flat, or I would say almost flat. The examples are very relevant, although the book originally was written in 2004. His "Dell Theory" deserves applause.¤

4) Paperback Book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Picador. I am surprised by how many reviewers described this book as "well written." I found it extremely wordy. The content to word ratio here is extremely low. The ideas in this book could have (and should have) been expressed in 150 pages or less. Instead Friedman drones on for close to 600 pages. The extreme length would have been justified if the book had gone into detail about certain topics or provided more rigorous analysis of different points of view. Instead its 600 pages of high level fluff. Does anyone really need a 600 page tome to tell them we are doing a lot of business with India? Is making a point concisely a lost art? Was Friedman paid by the word? Can I find an Indian gentleman to write me an executive summary of this leviathan?¤

5) Paperback Book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Picador. It is an interesting book, and Friedman brings up a lot of arguable points Its crazy how much outsourcing really goes over seas to China and India.¤

6) Paperback Book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Picador.

7) Paperback Book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Picador. Updated Edition: Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim in The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn´t going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman´s breathless narrative much of its urgency, and which also saves it from the Epcot-style polyester sheen that futurists--the optimistic ones at least--are inevitably prey to.

What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution that have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. (He doesn´t forget the "mutant supply chains" like Al-Qaeda that let the small act big in more destructive ways.)

Friedman has embraced this flat world in his own work, continuing to report on his story after his book´s release and releasing an unprecedented hardcover update of the book a year later with 100 pages of revised and expanded material. What´s changed in a year? Some of the sections that opened eyes in the first edition--on China and India, for example, and the global supply chain--are largely unaltered. Instead, Friedman has more to say about what he now calls "uploading," the direct-from-the-bottom creation of culture, knowledge, and innovation through blogging, podcasts, and open-source software. And in response to the pleas of many of his readers about how to survive the new flat world, he makes specific recommendations about the technical and creative training he thinks will be required to compete in the "New Middle" class. As before, Friedman tells his story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns know well, and he holds to a stern sort of optimism. He wants to tell you how exciting this new world is, but he also wants you to know you´re going to be trampled if you don´t keep up with it. A year later, one can sense his rising impatience that our popular culture, and our political leaders, are not helping us keep pace. --Tom Nissley

Where Were You When the World Went Flat?

Thomas L. Friedman´s reporter´s curiosity and his ability to recognize the patterns behind the most complex global developments have made him one of the most entertaining and authoritative sources for information about the wider world we live in, both as the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and as the author of landmark books like From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. They also make him an endlessly fascinating conversation partner, and we´ve now had the chance to talk to him about The World Is Flat twice. Read our original interview with him following the publication of the first edition of The World Is Flat to learn why there´s almost no one from Washington, D.C., listed in the index of a book about the global economy, and what his one-plank platform for president would be. (Hint: his bumper stickers would say, "Can You Hear Me Now?")

And now you can listen to our second interview, in which he talks about the updates he´s made in "The World Is Flat 2.0," including his response to parents who said to him, "Great, Mr. Friedman, I´m glad you told us the world is flat. Now what do I tell my kids?"

The Essential Tom Friedman

From Beirut to Jerusalem

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Longitudes and Attitudes

More on Globalization and Development

China, Inc. by Ted Fishman	Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz	The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz	The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli	The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto

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Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 8-Nov-2008, 03124250749780312425074, 010-060-740-540-450-450-NGB-D0B-DMB-SOB-8

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