I'm in the process of reading "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" by Thomas L. Friedman. I haven't read anything else of his, but I am mostly underwhelmed by this book - and I'm roughly half-way done.
Now it could be that, through my work at Delphi Group over the last 12 years, being right in the thick of everything he's discussing, it's all pretty bloody obvious how all these forces come together to "flatten" the world - but then again, so far, everyone else I work with or interact with professionally, seems to have also been a bit bored by this book. It could be that, now that Delphi Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Perot Systems, a global IT outsourcing company, that makes this all blazingly obvious. In any case, as the author states, he was asleep at the wheel, pre-occupied with other issue, and failed to notice the rise of the internet, wireless, global outsourcing, etc.. - but that doesn't mean that the rest of us were!
I also disagree with his "flatness" concept - I realize it is partially a play on the old misconception that the world was flat, and you would sail over the edge, but it still bothers me, even if the concept does make a great cover for the Kansas album "Point of Know Return."
His "flatness" idea bothers me in the same way that information security (InfoSec) professionals talk about "the shrinking perimeter." While it is true that protection/security does need to be applied to machines, applications, the operating system, etc. more directly, rather than relying on a perimeter, firewall, gateway or other "barrier at the edge" metaphor, my experience is that sloppy thinking then begins, as they embrace the new and toss the old, simply because it is old.
The world isn't flat, it's small - flat doesn't imply that distance doesn't matter. Unless we're talking a "Wrinkle in Time"-like scenario, where the flat world (or space) can be folded (if Mr. Friedman has this somewhere in the book, I have not gotten to it yet), then maybe I would agree. Flatness doesn't address the resources we are (probably) exhausting from the earth (under the flatness, if you follow) - nor the potential for opportunities and exploration of space (above the flatness). Perhaps I make too much of this, but the depth of his arguments/points just leave me wanting.
In any case, my thoughts, from half-way through this flat book - while I am normally an Amazon book buying fiend, in this case I happened to borrow the book, and I am happy to have not spent the money on a hardbound, overhyped book. There are definitely a handful of good nuggets in this book, but while I am normally fully engaged in reading whatever material I have in hand (business, technical, scifi, non-fiction, etc.), I find myself skimming along hoping to pick up an interesting thread to hold my interest.
I would recommend that if you have not yet read the book, borrow a copy from a friend, or that pre-historic relic, the library - your money may not be wasted by buying the book, but I wouldn't call it exactly well spent either.
Cheers,
Dan
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