We Only Deal in Big Change Here

TITLE: The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
AUTHOR: Thomas L. Friedman
PUBLISHER: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
593 Pages
$39.95 CDN





BIG IDEA

Thomas Friedman examines the ways that technology and globalization has changed our world over the first five years of the 21st century, and what some of the implications are on businesses, individuals, and communities.

WHAT YOU CAN USE NOW

In this book, Friedman points out that people who are constantly hung up on the past are doomed to be left behind in the future. Though it is important to acknowledge past accomplishments, you cannot live off of them forever. Thus, no matter how good things used to be, don’t forget that your energy should always be focused on your future goals and dreams.

WHAT WE THINK

In The World is Flat, Friedman examines globalization and business, and gives the reader an incredibly large amount of information about what is going on in our world today. What does Friedman mean by the world is flat? Well, think of it this way: imagine yourself on a curling rink. You, as an individual, want to send a product or service (a curling rock) to the other side of the rink. So, you just push off, let go, and allow the rock to smoothly glide from your hands to its ultimate destination. In this flat world, the rock slides through its trajectory without any friction, obstacles, or resistance. What does an un-flat world look like? Imagine trying to curl on a soccer field, where thousands of blades of grass (trade restrictions, communication barriers, faulty technology) work to stop the rock dead in its tracks. In The World is Flat, Friedman attempts to describe the ten factors that made the world flat, and then examine the opportunities, challenges, and consequences that a flat world carries.

For this review, I’m choosing a slightly different approach. When I generally review books, I try to more or less stick to this basic outline: describe the book and what it’s trying to accomplish before moving into its strengths, weaknesses, and then finally give my conclusion. In this case, though, I’m going to skip to the end of the review and give my conclusion first: this book is quite good. However, before I move into what makes The World is Flat a good read, I would like to first clear out what I disliked about the book.

Perhaps the main problem I have with the book is that the sheer amount of information Friedman is engaging in means that issues and arguments are not always given the necessary space needed for intelligent debate. Even 600 pages can’t cope with the sheer amount of material Friedman has bitten off; from global policies, terrorism, education, technology, to the environment, Friedman has essentially taken a lifetime’s worth of subjects, and tightly packed them into a book. As a result, some subjects suffer. The other point of contention that I had with this book is Friedman’s own perspective on the issues. While he has reported on globalization from every location that he covers, for most of the book he seems to be wearing some pretty impressive blinders, focusing almost exclusively on the United States. While Friedman does try to include some analysis on how outsourcing and globalization are changing some developing countries, his analysis sometimes comes across as partially oblivious, as he skims over some of the problems associated with a flat world. This is no more evident than when Friedman is praising companies for working to eliminate worker exploitation, bribery, and pollution in their overseas outlets, rather than criticizing them for having these problems in the first place.

However, like I said at the start, this book deserves a good review because it does what it sets out to do. Though Friedman tackles much more material than he could possibly hope to cover thoroughly, the book is not meant to be an in-depth report into each of these issues. Instead, think of this book as a gigantic survey, providing you with hundreds of issues that you need to consider in business and life. Also, while Friedman carries a “how can America benefit from this” attitude with regards to every situation, he admits to his biases almost immediately, and never pretends to be objective. So, with those issues taken care of, there are many aspects of this book that I appreciated. Friedman’s almost exclusive use of primary sources, for example, means that this book is incredibly up to date and relevant. Also, The World is Flat gives the reader a huge amount of real life examples to illustrate its points, making this book a good companion to some of the more theoretical material available. And, most importantly, the book is interesting and fun to read, so the fifteen lengthy chapters go by with relative ease, allowing you to absorb a large amount of the information presented. So ultimately, if you take the bad with the good, The World is Flat is worth a read for anyone interested in globalization, no matter where you sit on the issue.

The B Cubed Crew