The World Is Flat (edit title)

• Rated 1 stars

“the reason why i added this book - this is the worst of Friedman..beating up plain vanilla ideas over and over again till they literally taste bitter..i think he wrote this book thinking he will awaken America..maybe his children..but America..NAH !!”

• Rated 2 stars

“Synopsis: Cheap, ubiquitous telecommunications have reshaped the globe into a ‘flat world’ in which individuals compete on an equal footing regardless of their geographical location.

My Take: Um, yeah Thomas – where have you been for the past 7 years??

A shallow (excuse the pun)conceptual analysis stretched into a 500(!) page book. Friedman is sometimes an ok journalist and this book has some enjoyable and enlightening sections (such as the chapter on the Japanese speaking Chinese province of Dalian and the Japanese outsourcing economy that has sprung up there) but when he flicks the switch to theorist/philosopher/grand theorist he’s very very ordinary.

His conclusions are patently obvious and not in the good “Why hasn’t any one thought of that before” way but more in the “It took you 500 pages to say something a half decent journalist could say in a column?!” way. To make matters worse, the way he carries on about his grand idea as being some kind of revelation is really irritating. That being said, I picked this book up in the remainders bin of an English language bookshop in Chengdu for around A$1 so I can’t really complain.”

• Rated 5 stars

“http://sachi-webpagebackend.blogspot.com/2007/05/world-is-flat-thomas-friedman.html”

• Rated 2 stars

“I didn't agree with this book at all, but I still thought it was valuable reading. This was written as a defense of globalization and "free" trade, and I found myself in the odd position of being better able to explain my opposition to both after reading it, so it didn't really have the intended effect on me. It helped me understand the value and assumptions of the other side.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Really shows you a global perspective of the way the world is changing.
A fascinating read. Gave it to the kids' history teacher and he kept it!”

• Rated 0 stars

“Started and the stopped. Will have to start again.”

• Rated 4 stars

“NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman offers a view of the ever-changing economic world of the 21st century. He argues that the world has been "flattened," i.e. made more equal, by computers, technology, and other forces. He illustrates this new, flat world through numerous examples, particularly from India and China, two countries leading the way in the new global economy. Friedman makes the complicated subject of global economics very accessible.”

• Rated 4 stars

“its all about globalization ”

• Rated 5 stars

“Great book.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Scary”