Friedman discusses five skill sets needed for the younger generation to succeed in a globalized world: 1) the ability to learn how to learn, 2) navigation skills to filter information, 3) passion and curiosity, 4) liberal arts education, and 5) using the right side of the brain for horizontal thinking. He argues integrating these skills will help train people for new middle jobs and ensure future success. The chapter emphasizes cultivating a drive to learn, thinking skills beyond just math and science, and connecting different perspectives to think creatively.

1. THE WORLD IS FLAT:
CHAPTER 7 THE
RIGHT STUFF

2. The Right Stuff
▲In this chapter, Friedman explains this as being the different things and methods that need to
be implemented into American societies today in order to ensure a strong future for the next
generation.
▲Friedman discusses “5 skill sets or aptitudes toward learning” that would be very helpful in
training younger people or the newer generation for the many new middle jobs that will appear
in a flat world.
▲Friedman throughout this chapter and with these skills provided with the will to learn the
younger generation shall surely prosper into the future of the flattening world

3. 5 skills towards learning
1. The ability to learn “how to learn”,
2. About how we teach navigation,
3. Passion and curiosity,
4. The importance of liberal arts,
5. The need to educate younger people to think horizontally by using the right side of your brain
more

4. The ability to learn
◦ Friedman states that “To learn how to learn you have to love learning or you have to at least
enjoy it”.
◦ By loving to learn or having that self-motivation and passion to learn new things and to
constantly innovate your own thinking and abilities, it is this mentality that gives you the ability
to learn how to learn.
◦ The drive that is created within an individual to succeed as well as the want to modify
themselves in terms of education and ability as the world modifies grants you the ability to
properly learn how to learn.

5. Navigation
◦ Navigation is the ability to sort out information that is non-useful and inaccurate and in doing
so acquiring desirable information that can be used and is contextual and reliable for purposes
of the research.
◦ It is the tool that teaches the youth of today to create these filters and in doing so they now
have the ability to find information and critically analyze its reliability and validity for their own
use.

6. Passion and Curiosity
◦ As Friedman puts its third skill passion and curiosity because it was and always will be a great
advantage to have passion and curiosity for anything.
◦ Curiosity and passion are the key components to the motivation and drive to succeed in any
person, that is the concept displayed by this skill set. Curiosity and passion are the factors in
ones life that motivates them and creates the will to learn.
◦ This skill set has shown me that intelligence is not the entire gift to success but rather the
amount of curiosity and passion that individual has will extend his or hers endeavors to meet all
self expectations and goals in life.
PQ+CQ>IQ

7. Stressing liberals art
◦ Liberal arts composes of all the other classes aside from mathematics and science courses.
◦ In this section of the chapter the idea that math and science are very important in the youth of
today’s education is important but the integration of other classes such as English, art history
and music are now equally as important.
◦ As the flattening process as affected the entire world and initiated a global shift from vertical
thinking to horizontal thinking the integration of liberal arts classes
◦ Now with the use of the right side of the brain the integration of deeper thought and analytical
skills are introduced and it is this process that creates more horizontal thinking and in the end
helps create more untouchables native to America.

8. Using the right side of the brain
◦ Friedman states “If creativity depends on connecting disparate dots, then we need to be
educating our young people not only in more dots, a la the liberal arts, but also in the ability to
think horizontally to mesh together different perspectives and disciplines to produce a third
thing. That skill is something that happens on the right side of our brains and educators need to
think about how we nurture that.”
◦ The idea that the world up to the modern age has been built and flourished on thought process
of the left side of the brain.
◦ This though process has created a high amount of vertical thinking, which has been automated,
digitized, and outsourced in the flat world.