Thomas L. Friedman, "The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" (3rd Edition)

A New Edition Of The Phenomenal #1 Bestseller

"One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times reviewing The World Is Flat in 2005. In this new edition, Thomas L. Friedman includes fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. Weaving new information into his overall thesis, and answering the questions he has been most frequently asked by parents across the country, this third edition also includes two new chapters—on how to be a political activist and social entrepreneur in a flat world; and on the more troubling question of how to manage our reputations and privacy in a world where we are all becoming publishers and public figures.

The World Is Flat 3.0 is an essential update on globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks—environmental, social, and political, powerfully illuminated by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree.

Amazon.com Review
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 isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's 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 doesn't 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 book's release and releasing an unprecedented hardcover update of the book a year later with 100 pages of revised and expanded material. What's 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 you're going to be trampled if you don't 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.

From Publishers Weekly
Before 9/11, New York Times columnist Friedman was best known as the author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, one of the major popular accounts of globalization and its discontents. Having devoted most of the last four years of his column to the latter as embodied by the Middle East, Friedman picks up where he left off, saving al-Qaeda et al. for the close. For Friedman, cheap, ubiquitous telecommunications have finally obliterated all impediments to international competition, and the dawning "flat world" is a jungle pitting "lions" and "gazelles," where "economic stability is not going to be a feature" and "the weak will fall farther behind." Rugged, adaptable entrepreneurs, by contrast, will be empowered. The service sector (telemarketing, accounting, computer programming, engineering and scientific research, etc.), will be further outsourced to the English-spoken abroad; manufacturing, meanwhile, will continue to be off-shored to China. As anyone who reads his column knows, Friedman agrees with the transnational business executives who are his main sources that these developments are desirable and unstoppable, and that American workers should be preparing to "create value through leadership" and "sell personality." This is all familiar stuff by now, but the last 100 pages on the economic and political roots of global Islamism are filled with the kind of close reporting and intimate yet accessible analysis that have been hard to come by. Add in Friedman's winning first-person interjections and masterful use of strategic wonksterisms, and this book should end up on the front seats of quite a few Lexuses and SUVs of all stripes.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Friedman, nominally a liberal, has historically taken the middle path and supported laissez-faire capitalism, globalization, and the power of institutions like the International Monetary Fund. Ever optimistic about globalization, he pleases its proponents and disappoints its detractors in The World Is Flat. There’s no doubt that Friedman asks timely questions, even if he sometimes shirks definitive answers. Although he acknowledges terrorism’s global weight, he identifies an even more potent force shaping global economics and politics: the "triple convergence—of new players, on a new playing field, developing new processes… for horizontal collaboration," particularly in China and India. Friedman’s story comes alive as we meet the movers and shakers of Globalization 3.0, eavesdrop on Friedman’s interviews, and witness collaborations in progress. Friedman’s personal journey, if slightly padded, makes for entertaining and accessible reading. Yet critics, even those who support globalization, differed on Friedman’s thesis; India, for example, has not yet become the global superpower he describes; many scholars still describe the "flat world" as a nicer name for "cheap labor." Friedman also less effectively analyzes the effects of Globalization 3.0 than its players, and embraces technological determinism at the expense of thoroughly considering major political factors (like terrorist networks, which he’s previously compared to World War III). No matter your stance on the benefits or pitfalls of globalization, The World Is Flat is an important, thought-provoking book—even if Friedman’s answer to unresolved issues is, "Sort that out."

Contents

Introduction to the Paperback Edition

How the World Became Flat
 1 While I Was Sleeping
  "The Monitor Is Burning?"
  Flatburgers and Fries
 2 The Ten Forces That Flattened the World
  Flattener #1 – 11/9/89 The New Age of Creativity: When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up
  Flattener #2 – 8/9/95 The New Age of Connectivity: When the Web Went Around and Netscape Went Public
  Flattener #3 – Workflow Software
  Genesis: The Flat-World Platform Emerges
  Flattener #4 – Uploading: Harnessing the Power of Communities
  Flattener #5 – Outsourcing: Y2K
  Flattener #6 – Offshoring: Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions
  Flattener #7 – Supply-Chaining: Eating Sushi in Arkansas
  Flattener #8 – Insourcing: What the Guys in Funny Brown Shorts Are Really Doing
  Flattener #9 – In-Forming: Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search
  Flattener #10 – The Steroids: Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual
 3 The Triple Convergence
  Convergence I
  Convergence II
  Convergence III
  How Do You Say "Zippie" in Chinese
  From Russia with Love
  The Other Triple Convergence
 4 The Great Sorting Out
  India Versus Indiana: Who Is Exploiting Whom?
  Where Do Companies Stop and Start?
  From Command and Control to Collaborate and Connect
  Multiple Identity Disorder
  Who Owns What?
  Death of the Salesmen

America and the Flat World
 5 America and Free Trade: Is Ricardo Still Right?
 6 The Untouchables: Finding the New Middle
  The New Middle
  The New Middlers
 7 The Right Stuff: Tubas and Test Tubes
  Which Class Do I Take to Learn How to Learn?
  Navigation
  CQ + PQ > IQ
  Stressing Liberal Arts
  Right Brain
  Tubas and Test Tubes
  The Right Country
 8 The Quiet Crisis
  Dirty Little Secret #1: The Numbers Gap
  Dirty Little Secret #2: The Education Gap at the Top
  Dirty Little Secret #3: The Ambition Gap
  Dirty Little Secret #4: The Education Gap at the Bottom
  Dirty Little Secret #5: The Funding Gap
  Dirty Little Secret #6: The Infrastructure Gap
  The Bottom Line
 9 This Is Not a Test
  Leadership
  Muscles
  Good Fat: Cushions Worth Keeping
  Parenting

Developing Countries and the Flat World
 10 The Virgin of Guadalupe
  Introspection
  I Can Get It for You Wholesale
  I Can Only Get It for You Retail
  Follow the Leapin' Leprechauns
  Culture Matters: Glocalization
  The Intangible Things
  Many Speeds, One Direction

Companies and the Flat World
 11 How Companies Cope
  Rule #1: When the world is flat, whatever can be done will be done
  Rule #2: Because we are in a world where whatever can be done will be done, the most important competition today is between you and your own imagination
  Rule #3: And the small shall act big…
  Rule #4: And the big shall act small…
  Rule #5: The best companies are the best collaborators
  Rule #6: In a flat world, the best companies stay healthy by getting regular chest X-rays and then selling the results to their clients
  Rule #7: The best companies outsource to win, not to shrink
  Rule #8: HOW you do things as a company matters more today than ever
  Rule #9: When the world goes flat—and you are feeling flattened—reach for a shovel and dig inside yourself.

You and the Flat World
 12 Globalization of the Local: The Cultural Revolution Is About to Begin
 13 If It's Not Happening, It's Because You're Not Doing It
 14 What Happens When We All Have Dog's Hearing?

Geopolitics and the Flat World
 15 The Unflat World: No Guns or Cell Phones Allowed
  Too Sick
  Too Disempowered
  Too Frustrated
  Too Many Toyotas
 16 The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention: Old-Time Versus Just-In-Time
  Infosys Versus Al-Qaeda
  Too Personally Insecure

Conclusion: Imagination
 17 11/9 Versus 9/11
  eBay
  India
  The Curse of Oil
  Just One Good Example
  From Untouchables to Untouchables

Acknowledgments
Index

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