By now most readers have had experiences similar to a phone call I made to the customer service number for my computer router. The person was unfailingly polite, patient (he spent over 30 minutes on the phone with me), and in my mind a technical genius. He also answered my call from his home in India. Here in America you might think of this as a low-wage, low-prestige job, but in India it is a high-prestige and high-paying job, so much so that thousands of well-qualified applicants apply for each job opening. Come to think of it, with all of India and China now very much "on line" and ready to plug-n-play, there are now about 3 billion new players out there in the worlds of technology and business. They are extraordinarily talented, ambitious, motivated and hard-working.

About five years ago, argues Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, we entered a new phase of globalization, what he calls Globalization 3.0, so different, radical and comprehensive in scale and scope as to redefine our entire world. Globalization 3.0 has "flattened" our world in the sense that there is now a much more level playing field for every individual, and not, as in the past, just for large corporations or countries. Friedman identifies ten business revolutions, technical innovations, and major political events that, together, flattened our world. These ten "flatteners" then merged and converged, changed how all business is done, and then added 3 billion new players. Examples are legion. The obscure startup Napster quickly had 60 million visitors a month. Just three years ago Google processed about 150 million searches a day, whereas today it performs a billion searches every day. HP in my own city of Palo Alto has 142,000 employees in 178 countries. Just five years ago they had 87 supply chains; today they have just five, overseeing $50 billion of business.

Globalization 3.0 is a cause for positive excitement and legitimate dread. At a minimum it already has been and will continue to act as a "hugely disruptive force" (p. 279) for everyone in the world. Friedman admits that he is a "technical determinist," by which he means, I think, that nothing can stop these technological forces and that they all head in the same direction of greater efficiency, complexity, specialization, etc. But he cautions that he is not a "historical determinist." That is, "I don't know how the flattening of the world will come out" (p. 374). Numerous scenarios could thwart, derail or even reverse Globalization 3.0, at least in limited places. A war between India and Pakistan, or between China and Taiwan, would provoke a huge reversal. In Africa there are 800 million people "too sick" who are getting left behind. The "too disempowered" and the "too humiliated" (mainly the Muslim world) likewise. Then there are the problems that Jared Diamond has chronicled in his new book Collapse, what Friedman calls "too many Toyotas." True, unheard of opportunities for wealth creation have lifted millions out of poverty; but they have also taxed planet earth's limited resources. Right now Beijing, for example, adds 1,000 cars every day to its clogged streets. Their appetite for oil will drive gas prices even higher, consequently strengthen the worst political despots in the world, and damage the environment (p. 411). In a separate chapter he explores how non-state actors like Al-Qaeda also take full advantage of Globalization 3.0. So, the powerful convergence of flatteners creates serious losers in its wake.

Many Americans either ignore or deny the radical implications of Globalization 3.0, says Friedman. They suffer from what one person described to him as the "American Idol problem": they stare in disbelief when they are told that they are not the best, most qualified, or that they are insufficiently talented, disciplined, educated, etc. Still, in one study, for example, America ranked seventeenth in the world in the

Mr. Friedman deserves much praise for this book, which is trivial for all those political leaders, business managers, and knowledge workers who have been working in an international context for the last 5 to 10 years and kept their eyes and mind open. Thanks to the excellent and digestible style, the book's message is consumable for those, who did not close their mind, to paraphrase Allan Bloom. I am working in an international environment, being a professional in the IT consulting industry. Every bit of this book is not only trivial for me, but is proven by every working day.
As Károly Böhm (1846-1911), the founder of the Hungarian philosophy put: `Facts must be respected, not disputed.' This is also true with the topic of this book. It would make our world much better if we talked about how to make better use of our possibilities and resources than just stubbornly refusing every call and need for change.

If you've been on a space station for the past 6 years, or -- as I have been -- living (& pre-occupied with renovating an old house) in the rural south-east "toe" of New Brunswick where nobody reads anything & the topics of conversation are the collapse of the cod fishery and the price of lumber, this book would be a revelation, as indeed it was for me. I had no idea of the extent of change since I retired from the world of business in 2000. I was greatly impressed by what this book had to say.

But...6 months have passed, I cancelled "Time" & got a subscription to "The Economist" & have been reading more widely & Friedman's book begins to seem more superficial & less brilliant.

I have usually avoided best-sellers because my experience has been that any book which appeals to the least commmon demoninator must be simplistic, glib & trendy. While "The World is Flat" is all of the above, it was interesting and useful to me in my state of ignorance about the early 21st century Global Economy. But it is certainly not the last or best word on the subject.

This book has got to be the most entertaining, well-written, and fun book to read on the dry subject of globalization. Friedman is a great author who can take incredibly difficult and complicated topics and explain them with a story-teller's flair. However, while reading the (over 100 page long) chapter on the "Ten Flatteners" you might agree with me that this chapter could have been edited to half its current length. I can only hope that in the "new, improved, EXPANDED" edition that this chapter does not gain any girth. Overall, I have no complaints about any other chapter. Everything else is well written, but that second chapter could have been incredibly more direct instead of Friedman trying to be cute about how he presents the flatteners of the world. This is the only reason the book doesn't have five stars.

I ENJOYED THIS BOOK VERY MUCH. ALSO I LEARNED THINGS FROM THIS BOOK THAT WERE SURPRISING TO ME. IT MADE ME FEEL AS IF I WAS LIVING THE BOOK.