The World Is Flat
My April "must-read" was The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. I did enjoy it, not least because of Friedman's upbeat, cheerful sense of wonder and enthusiasm at what he sees taking place in the world because of innovations in communication and trade. Friedman's journalistic style and liberal use of anecdotes liven up what could otherwise be dull reading.
Because Steve is a computer geek, technophile, and IT guy, most of the information was not new to me. However, usually I read articles about off-shore jobs, outsourcing, and world trade written in dour, pessimistic, hand-wringing prose. Friedman is probably too optimistic about too much, but his optimism was encouraging for the most part, and in places he sounded a warning about the pitfalls of this "flattening" of the world.
My favorite bits were his sections on Wal-Mart, UPS, and EBay and PayPal.
Labels: books, reading lists
posted by Laura at
8:20 PM
1 Comments:
I reviewed this book back early in 2006. I had mixed feelings. I felt that if he had one more "ah-ha" moment, I was going find him and choke him. But he is a good storyteller and I learned a lot from the book. My economist friends have been more critical of the book, however. But Friedman is a journalist, not an academic.
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