The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History
of the Twenty-first Century by
Thomas L. Friedman
Another Great Purchase
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 isnt
going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedmans 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 doesnt 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 books release and releasing an unprecedented
hardcover update of the book a year later with 100 pages of revised and
expanded material. Whats 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 youre going to be
trampled if you dont 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. Friedmans reporters 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 weve
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 theres 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 hes made in The World Is
Flat 2.0, including his response to parents who said to him, Great, Mr.
Friedman, Im 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
Personal Review: The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the
Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
Thomas Friedman has a theory: the world is getting flatter.
Friedman uses the metaphor of a flat world to describe what he calls the
evening out of competition in the 21st century. In a nutshell: technology
has enabled numerous people in developing countries to compete with
individuals in the developed world. This is changing the way companies do
business and the way nations do government. And if that is the case,
individuals need to change the way they do life.This basically means
globalization.
Friedman addresses the topic in many different ways, but all of his points
affect people in a personal way. The book is divided into six sections, each
dealing with globalization in its own way. In the first section, Friedman
describes the ten factors he thinks are flattening the world, including work
flow software, uploading, supply-chaining, and outsourcing, among others.
The next section is how America fits into the flat world. The next two
sections deal with companies and individuals evolving in the flat world. The
book concludes with a section about geopolitics in the 21st century.
There are numerous interesting stories in this book, including an Indian call
center outsourcing its work, and school teachers in India and the U.S.
collaborating on a classroom project. Friedman advocates severe free
market capitalism in this book, but does so with social compassion. His
basic rhetoric is this: the world is changing quickly, and it is for the better.
There are some people who are going to be left behind. It is the
government's job to help and educate these people so that they can join
the rest of the individuals moving forward.
Friedman's thinking is very liberal, but mixed with a heavy dose of capitalist
conservatism. He is compelling, and hard to ignore. I feel as if this is a
must-read for anyone who plans on living in the 21st century. It is easy to
write this off as a business/economics book, but it is so much more than
that. It is a record of the evolving technology and culture of the new world
ahead of us.

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