The World is Flat

Reading a good book leaves me with an amazing feeling. I am much more impacted by reading a book than watching a movie. Forcing my imagination to work its gears is more rewarding than passively having a story fed to me. I don't want to bash on movies, and I know I'm getting all Reading Rainbow on everyone, but The World is Flat is the second book I've read within a year that concisely summarizes a mess of thoughts and questions that run through my head.

After reading only 115 pages, I am discovering that The World is Flat reveals a perspective that is helping me understand what is happening to the U.S. economy and the world. The World is Flat refers to the leveling of the United States with the rest of the world. The changes involved in outsourcing and other globalization activities are contributing to this flattening, or evening out the playing field.

At this point in the book, there are a few ideas that struck me the most:

1. Competition is becoming fierce. Not only am I competing against my U.S. peers, I am now competing against my peers around the globe. These overseas peers are highly and technically educated and have an extremely strong motivation to excel, considering their often proverty stricken background.

2. Accept the changes and lead the way. Outsourcing is a non-stop evolution in U.S. businesses. To stay competitive, companies are submitting to outsourcing technologies to other countries. We're not the only ones. Japan outsources to China, for example. The U.S. is paving the way on how this outsourcing business is handled. General feelings of the U.S. losing control of our technical expertise and job opportunities are still a large concern for me, but the U.S. has the opportunity to lead this outsourcing evolution in a positive direction that could benefit all countries involved.

2.5 Accept online networking. This is a spin-off thought from #2's point of accepting change and leading the way. I am coming to terms on online networking. I have been a strong and stubborn advocate for people meeting the traditional way, face to face, not pc screen to pc screen. I still believe meeting people face to face is the best way to go, even if it's at the bar, but the world is changing and people must adapt. I use online sites to keep in contact with existing friends, but recently, I have realized online networking tools, such as facebook, myspace, and blogger itself, play a HUGE role in social interaction. This means a HUGE change in the way we communicate. I laugh like this, "lol," instead of like this, "hahaha," or simply saying, "I'm laughing" now. In some cases, my friendships would not be as strong or in existence without one of the networking tools. Realizing this strong impact, I have lightened up on my skepticism on online dating. If I resist this change, I would only be holding back progress. I suppose it's better to meet someone online than not meet someone at all.

3. You and I are a part of this change. I remember cassette players, typewriters, gas for $0.79/gallon, record players, and Atari. The pc changed everything. Fiber optics and wireless changed everything. We are riding this big wave, and this book is helping me understand it.

I'm not finished reading The World is Flat yet, but I already have some thoughts brewing. That is a sign of a good author and a good book.