The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Hardcover – April 18, 2006

This book is an analysis of business, economics, and education in the modern world, in which all individuals on the planet seem more closely connected through technology than ever before. Conceptually, the book is divided into 2 parts. In the first part, entitled "How the World Became Flat," Friedman enumerates ten forces which have led to greater connectedness (or "flatness," in the sense of a level-playing field for all, regardless of nationality or location). These forces include: the fall of the Berlin wall, the creation of Web browses and servers, software that enables collaboration on computing tasks, the ability of individuals to create and publish content independently, outsourcing, and insourcing (in which individuals or companies enlist the aid of other companies to give them the capability of serving and competing in international markets). In the second part of the book, Friedman analyzes some of the implications of a flat world for America, for developing countries, for business, and for politics.Friedman's analysis of the new level playing field for businesses and the implications for individuals is quite engrossing. While I had noticed many of these changes myself, I had never lined them all up together before to see the big picture as Friedman has. Five years ago I never would have imagined myself an entrepreneur, running a business that serves an international clientele, but the forces that Friedman describes have both led me into starting a business, and helped me develop it. Friedman's analysis of economic factors will be invaluable as I think about expanding or branching out into other products and services. He points out that whether they are aware of it or not, virtually every business is now competing in a global marketplace. To survive, it's not enough to be a decent provider of traditional products and services at a rate acceptable to local markets, since more than ever before, others elsewhere are trying to find ways to provide such services at a lower cost, and technology makes it possible for workers halfway around the globe to compete in what once were local marketplaces. As Rajesh Rao told Friedman in interview for this book, "There are dozens of people who are doing the same thing you are doing, and they are trying to do it better. It is like water in a tray, you shake it and it will find the path of least resistance. That is what is going to happen to so many jobs--they will go to that corner of the world where there is the least resistance and the most opportunity." I found the chapter on Walmart and its development of a highly efficient supply-chain extremely interesting, since instead of being bogged down with the ideology of Walmart bashing, Friedman examines how the company became so successful (and it wasn't simply the rationing of healthcare to its workers or a desire to demolish downtowns).Friedman argues that outsourcing and offshoring should not be taken as problems for America to solve through legislation, but rather as challenges that must be met through creativity and willingness to innovate. In this book, Friedman is more openly pro-globalization than in any of his previous books. He argues that rather than keeping undeveloped countries poor, globalization allows such countries the chance to develop. Against the charge that Third World workers are subject to sweatshop conditions, and products are made with child labor, Friedman points out business alliances who have set their own minimal standards for labor and worker safety. (Too bad the WTO couldn't adopt such standards as the condition for free trade concessions.) Friedman notes that American workers may lose their jobs to globalization through outsourcing and offshoring, but he quotes David Rothkopf "most jobs are not lost to outsourcing to India or China--most lost jobs are `outsourced to the past.'" Thus, Friedman argues parents and teachers need to do the best possible job to prepare students for the job market of the future, in which students will have to compete on a level playing field with foreign nationals while new technology is constantly being adopted. Craig Barrett of Intel warns "Standard of living is related to the average value add of your workforce, and that is related to average educational level of your workforce. If you downgrade the average educational level of your workforce, relative to your competition, your standard of living will decline."Friedman points out the value of trust in today's marketplace, noting that "trust is the foundation of innovation and entrepreneurship." I felt this point should have received even more stress in this book. For a few years, I taught Web development in the Middle East. My students learned how to create Web sites capable of e-commerce, but what was the point? Their brick and mortar marketplaces are so lacking in trust, that it was laughable for them to ever conceive of running the kinds of e-commerce Websites hosted in the US. Here, our level of trust has enabled mail order businesses to be successful for over 100 years, and it was a fairly simply jump from catalog orders to e-commerce. But in a culture where there is an adversarial relationship between merchant and customer in face-to-face transactions, where each wonders if money and product will surrendered as agreed, and where the merchant absolves himself from all responsibility for the quality of the product once he gets the money in hand, e-commerce will never be more than a pipe-dream. When considering who will be the winners and losers of the global marketplace of the future, trust and trustworthiness will play at least as important a role as access to technology and ability to use it. This book is a weighty tome, both physically as well as conceptually. Reading it is a project in itself, but the material contained in it is essential for citizens of the 21st century.

First, before you read another word, if you are buying this book, you want the expanded and updated version, which was published on April 18, 2006. It has another 100 pages that are not in any other versions. These 100 pages by itself are worth the entire cost of the book. Also make sure you read the section on terrorism, Friedman is as good as it gets on this subject.Now having said that, how often in a lifetime do you come across people that REALLY make you THINK? People who CHALLENGE the assumptions that underpin the entire framework upon which each of us has to understand, interpret, and ACT ON the world. This is Tom Friedman's gift to us. Even if he's not completely right, it matters only that he has the rest of us thinking about what he's saying, and for this we should be grateful.You want to read this book if:1) You find a compelling need to understand what telecommunications, and the new information age means to you, me, and the rest of us?2) You find it important to know if you and I are going to be able to do the work we are doing right now for the rest of our lives?3) You want to know if the United States is going to continue to be the world's only superpower with hegemony over different areas of the world, and technology.4) You want to know if we are in fact at an INFLECTION POINT (Andy Grove -Intel), where the world as we know it is about to change radically in ways we can not currently envision?Are these questions important to YOU?I believe these are vital questions, that each of us has to explore and make decisions about, and then EXECUTE what is best for each of us. Tom Friedman does an extraordinary job in conveying to you the state of the world as it really is, not as we would like it to be, or as our politicians would like us to believe. It would seem that some readers are not happy with Friedman? They find him arrogant, too intellectual, just full of himself, and irritating.This isn't about the messenger - it's about the MESSAGEThe message is one of hope, but we have to be listening. What has happened very simply is that a trillion dollars worth of new high-tech telecommunications cables were installed around the world in the late 1990's, with no real intended purpose, except there was the money to be spent. It then became apparent that you could talk via telephone or computer across the planet for the SAME COST as someone 200 feet away in your neighbor's home - The world was never the same again, or as the book's title indicates, THE WORLD IS FLAT.CHEAP Bandwidth and the Internet - CHANGED EVERYTHINGFriedman gives you the whole story. You can now get an x-ray, or CAT scan in a hospital in Iowa at 3AM, and have an Indian doctor 12 time zones away interpret the results for you real time at 1/20th of the cost. Your child needs tutoring. You can have a PhD tutor your child on the telephone from India for $10 per hour, rather than $50 or a $100 per hour here. The world is changing certainly. You either get on the train and go with it, or you get taken out by that train as it sweeps by. Either way, you are not going to stand still according to Friedman.Look at the website you are reading right now. You can read reviews and access any book, and have it delivered to your within days without leaving your front porch. You can even download many books them instantly. You can obtain the knowledge of the universe while sitting on a river in Montana, or a cattle ranch in Texas. This is fantastic, and this is indeed transforming the way we think, act, and execute.You Can't Ignore Friedman, but you can't EXTRAPOLATE the future either!!!Friedman talks about, how many people seem preoccupied with the notion of China and India overtaking the United States, and or the world changing to become something we don't recognize today. If there is one thing that is certain about the future, it is that you cannot take what you see right now, and extrapolate into the future. Life just doesn't work that way.The United States is the only country in history that imports more people and makes them citizens of America, than the rest of the world COMBINED. Think about it, we are in a constant state of REJUVENATION. No other country can begin to claim this.In addition this country produces genius level individuals greater than any other country, witness the sheer number of Nobel Prize winners, and the innovations that just don't happen anywhere else. Whether it's the invention of the Internet, the PC, vaccines, new media, or managerial ways of thinking and executing. It's all happening here, and probably will, for decades to come.Read Tom Friedman, embrace the future, and enjoy a remarkable new world, just as Columbus, the Mayflower settlers, and our founding fathers enjoyed. Tom Friedman provides a roadmap, but only up to a point. How the rest of the story gets written is up to us. Good luck.Richard Stoyeck