Book Review: The World is Flat
I was told by several peers before I bought a copy, that The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman is THE book to buy. Everyone said it would change the way I think about business and the world so I absolutely must read it now. Well, I did.
It's a fairly good read: the first 1/4 of it. After that it droned on and on and on, pushing the same point across to me again and again until I finally found myself repeating the phrase, "I GET it Thomas! I GET it! The world is flat! We need to adapt to survive. Seriously...I GET it!"
Don't get me wrong; the first 1/4 of the book is fantastic and really pulled me in and helped me understand his point. However, Friedman is a journalist by nature and he writes like a journalist: main point, supporting fact, supporting fact, supporting fact, supporting fact. This is great for journalism, but makes for a dry, difficult read. Friedman proved his point to me and then continued to prove it over and over again until I really forgot what the point was (and I think he may have also).
It's true; the world is flat. Things are evening out. We have to adapt, and quickly, if we are to survive as a country, as companies, and as individuals. I get it. But is that really anything new? The world has been flattening for around 400 years, and nations, companies, and people have adapted as necessary to accomodate this flattening. The only thing different in this century that Friedman correctly points out is the speed at which the world is now flattening. Technology is advancing this rate immensely, and that is important. But if you read this and think to yourself that you've discovered some amazing secret that has never been revealed before, you probably need to watch a little TV now and then. This has been happening for hundreds of years, and at a relatively rapid pace. It's just in the past few years that people have noticed the pace increasing.
I recommend you read the book. By 'read', I mean you should read the first two sections (How the World Became Flat and America and the Flat World) and then skim the rest for information you might find important to your corner of the world or something that is just darned interesting. There's a lot of interesting scattered throughout the book, you just have to wade through the repetitive supporting facts to get there. According to Friedman, the world is almost flat, but so is the last three quarters of this book. Most of it was superfluous stories.
So I'm giving it two coffee cups (out of three). That means it's worth a read, but don't pass up family time to do so. Put it on your nightstand and learn some valuable things about how the world works.
MJH
