Book #49: The World is Flat

Title: The World is Flat


Author: Thomas L. Friedman


If you've been a regular reader at Hitting the Ground Running you'll probably recognize this book from my reading list. It's been sitting there since January, when I started the blog on typepad and first broadcast to the world all the books that I'm reading. Since that time, nearly fifty books have come and gone, but this one has stayed on the list, for several reasons: first of all, I'm not much of a nonfiction reader, and the title of this book didn't draw me in immediately; secondly, it wasn't just a nonfiction book, it was 500 pages of a nonfiction book about technology, so I didn't think I'd find it a gripping read.


But, in it's own way, I found The World is Flat just as gripping as a really good novel. Friedman is a great writer (he's a columnist for the Washington Post and has written extensively in the past about globalization) and the topic is both interesting and a bit scary. The World is Flat is about the technological revolution that has taken place throughout the world in the last 10 years since the internet became widely accessible. It's about outsourcing jobs and the quickened pace at which we live our lives. Friedman believes that we, as Americans need to educate ourselves, especially in engineering and the sciences, in order to help globalization work to our advantage, and he thinks that government should support education a lot more than it does.


Now, when my kids talk about being artists and zookeepers, I want to go into their rooms at night and whisper in their ears, "You want to be an engineer when you grow up!" All in all, it's a fascinating read.


--originally published 8/11/06