If you’ve been in a bookstore over the last few years, you’ve probably seen displays of “The World is Flat”, an intimidating book by Thomas Friedman that attempts to explain recent global trends of the 21st century. While at Costco early this summer, I decided to impulse-buy a cheap paperback copy, and just now finished (goodbye summer vacation!). It goes through the impact of the Internet on everything in the world over the last 20 years: technology, business, politics, education, etc. Needless to say, it’s a mammoth read, but I have never studied most of those topics in a formal way and this book (eventually) made me feel much more aware of the current state of globalization. If only high school history courses were able to start with recent history and go backwards in time, instead of getting students barely through WWII by the end of the year.
Now for the fun factoids:
- My enthusiasm for Costco is well founded, and I always welcome comparisons between Wal-mart and Costco. “[Wal-mart] has cut all the fat out of the business…. But fat is what gives meat its taste… It is also what keeps us warm”. Go Costco!
- However, Wal-mart is not pure evil, and I feel less pressure to condemn their uber-national retailing upon learning a more detailed history of the company’s evolution. Union busting is still lame, and I’ll fight for small businesses, but I also heart efficiency.
- Ireland rules! Good work, fatherland.
- Excellent math and science education is necessary for America to thrive in the future, and reading this made me wish I could go back in time and put a little more oomph! into each lesson. GET IT TOGETHER, KIDS! Alas.
- On that note, dentistry is fairly protected from out-sourcing and off-shoring (phew!), though I’m sure the thousands of international dental students willing to pay for an American dental education will alter the market for both enrollment and practice.
- There’s never been a better time for full-blown social activism, but only those not-for-profit efforts with business-savvy leadership have a shot at sustainability. Now I need to learn Basic Accounting…
In conclusion, I won’t have that much time to spend with non-school non-fictions for a LONG time, and I’m glad to have gotten so much out of this one. Can’t say I understood every paragraph, but it makes me less afraid of the inevitable presence of business and technology in my career, though I’ve never been drawn to these fields before. Boy, I’m going to miss free time starting August 17th.