The book provides a summary of key points about Thomas L. Friedman's book "Thank You For Being Late". It discusses the author's background and career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. It then summarizes the main themes of the book, which explores how accelerations in technology, globalization, and climate change are transforming various aspects of society and politics. The review notes that while Friedman provides interesting facts and ideas, they are at times buried under lengthy recollections and anecdotes. Overall, it presents the book as a thoughtful reflection on the current state of the world.

1. Book Review:-
Thank You For Being Late
(An Optimist’s guide to thriving in age of
accelerations)
- Thomas L. Friedman
Group members:
SAHIL YADAV(17BCH056)
ARYA SHAH(17BCH042)
HETVI PATEL(17BCH034)
MANAN SUTRAVE(17BCH050)
UMANG SUTARIYA(17BCH049)

2. About the Author
• Thomas L. Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and, columnist—the recipient of three
Pulitzer Prizes and the author of seven bestselling books, among them From Beirut to Jerusalem and The World
Is Flat.
• Thomas Loren Friedman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on July 20, 1953, and grew up in the middle-class
Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. He is the son of Harold and Margaret Friedman. He has two older sisters,
Shelley and Jane.
• Friedman joined the London bureau of United Press International after completing his master's degree. He was
dispatched a year later to Beirut, where he lived from June 1979 to May 1981 while covering the Lebanon Civil
War. He was hired by The New York Times as a reporter in 1981 and re-dispatched to Beirut at the start of the 1982
Israeli invasion of Lebanon. His coverage of the war, particularly the Sabra and Shatila massacre, won him the
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (shared with Loren Jenkins of The Washington Post. Alongside David K.
Shipler he also won the George Polk Award for foreign reporting.
• In June 1984, Friedman was transferred to Jerusalem, where he served as the New York Times Jerusalem Bureau
Chief until February 1988. That year he received a second Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, which cited his
coverage of the First Palestinian Intifada. He wrote a book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, describing his experiences
in the Middle East, which won the 1989 U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction.
• Friedman received the 2004 Overseas Press Club Award for lifetime achievement and the same year was named

3. Introduction
• “Thank You for Being Late” is about “pausing, reflecting and the need for connection. It is
about practicing the Golden Rule.”
• It is primarily a book about change
• The book ‘Thank You For Being Late’ is such a book which revolves around globalization.
The title of the book comes while the author was having a regular breakfast meeting in
Washington D.C. and a person came late.
• Changes in technology, culture, climate, politics and globalization have been happening at
breakneck speed throughout the last decade. Friedman begins his summary of the
exponential increase in change in 2007, the year the iPhone, Android, YouTube, Kindle and
IBM’s Watson were introduced. He then discusses three “accelerators” of change that
have been at work since then: computer-related technology, globalization and climate
change and observes how these accelerators are shaping our world for good or ill.

4. Book Review
• Author begins by taking us into his own way of looking at the world–how he writes a column.
After a quick tutorial, he proceeds to write what could only be called a giant column about the
twenty-first century. His thesis: to understand the twenty-first century, you need to understand
that the planet’s three largest forces– Moore’s law (technology), the Market (globalization), and
Mother Nature (climate change and biodiversity loss)–are accelerating all at once. These
accelerations are transforming five key realms: the workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, and
community.
• The first part looks at those three accelerations, beginning with technology. It explores Moore’s
law and the boom in computer processing power, leading to new opportunities in big data, the
internet of things, and cloud computing. We can all do more, as individuals, than any generation
before us – and that’s true for both makers and ‘breakers’ – those who want to do good in the
world, and those who want to wreck stuff. It weighs up the benefits and dangers of hyper-
globalization, and sets the whole thing in the context of climate change.

5. Book Review (Cont.)
• One of the key points here is that these three trends are accelerating so fast that change
“can outpace the capacity of the average human being and our societal structures to
adapt and absorb them.” That leads to cultural angst, unrest, failing institutions, conflict
and migration and extreme politics.
• Thank You for Being Late is a work of contemporary history that serves as a field
manual for how to write and think about this era of accelerations. It’s also an argument
for “being late”–for pausing to appreciate this amazing historical epoch we’re passing
through and to reflect on its possibilities and dangers. To amplify this point, Friedman
revisits his Minnesota hometown in his moving concluding chapters; there, he explores
how communities can create a “topsoil of trust” to anchor their increasingly diverse and
digital populations.
• Now that the author has written his most ambitious book — part personal odyssey, part
common-sense manifesto. “Thank You for Being Late” has two overt aims. First,
Friedman wants to explain why the world is the way it is — why so many things seem
to be spinning out of control, especially for the Minnesota white middle class he grew
up in. And then he wants to reassure us that it is basically going to be O.K. In general
the explanation is more convincing than the reassurance. But as a guide for perplexed
Westerners, this book is very hard to beat.

6. Book Review (Cont.)
• A background understanding of the changes that have taken place in the past half
century around the world; the history of popular technology today (like the personal
computer, the cell phone and 'Watson' the supercomputer); an understanding of
Moore's Law and why it is transforming the technology of the modern world; the
impacts of the Age of Acceleration on the environment, and what it means for the battle
against climate change; an understanding of the ways an accelerated world works to
increase geopolitical tensions, and the surprising ways it can also solve it; why the
cloud (or supernova) is possibly the single biggest achievement of our era; what the
strength in small communities is and the difference they can make for the world as a
whole; why being constantly connected through 'flows' sometimes leaves us feeling
more isolated than ever; where all the middle class jobs have gone, and what needs to
happen to bring them back; why you don't need to worry about robots taking away
your job...yet.

7. • Unfortunately, Friedman’s intriguing facts and ideas are all but buried under too many
autobiographical anecdotes and lengthy recollections about the circumstances of
interviews he conducted and research he completed, giving readers the recipe and
history of all the ingredients along with the meal.
• In Spite of everything, Thank you For being Late is a thoughtful, generous, and hopeful
reflection on the state of our world.
Book Review (Cont.)

9. REFERENCES
1. https://www.thomaslfriedman.com/official-bio/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedman
3. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/FRIEDMAN-BIO.html?8qa
4. http://friendslibrary.in/books/detailedinfo/38226/Thank%20You%20For%20Being%20Late