I was supposed to read this in school. Years later, I finally got around to it. Originally published in 2005, this third edition was updated and expanded for the ever-increasing amount of technology in the world. What was timely when this was published is now a matter of history. Which, I suppose, is what the title alludes to. But does this book hold up as a reference for technological historians?
The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
Author: Thomas L. Friedman
Format: Audiobook
Length: 27 hours (approx)
Read by: Oliver Wyman
Published: August 7, 2007
Original Publisher: Picador
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: January 23, 2024
My rating: 
Synopsis
Although the world isn’t actually flat in the sense that flat-earthers say it is. But from a connection standpoint, day and night, timezones, “the other side of the planet” all have different meanings now. And those meanings are kind of meaningless in a connected world.
When looking at the early 21st century, the technological age connected people across the planet in a way previous unthought of. Certain innovators brought us all together with the use of technology that, by 2005 standards, was almost something out of science fiction.
This book really dives into the history of this connected world. Looking at the people that flattened the world, the technology that flattened it even more, and looks toward the future for what continued revolutions may bring.
Thoughts
Back when I was in graduate school for business, I was assigned this book to read. This would have been around 2009 or 2010 probably. So like all good students I bought the book. And promptly… didn’t read it. But when we discussed it in class, it always sounded very interesting. So I hung onto it, intending to delve into it someday. That someday turned into about 14 years later.
When the book came out, it would have been on the leading edge of talking about the rise of technology and bringing people in the world closer together than ever. But now as I read it, it truly is as its subtitle suggests – a history book. When looking at it as truly a history book, it’s rather very interesting.
The advent of technology and business expansion in the early 21st century, things like the iPhone, global commerce, and outsourcing, brought about huge changes that, as the author states, flattened the world. These are things that in today’s world we take for granted. The fact that I carry a supercomputer in my pocket every day would have been crazy at the turn of the century. In fact, I now wear an interface on my wrist that ties into that supercomputer, so I don’t even need to take said supercomputer out of my pocket!
One of the most fascinating things in this book was learning about outsourcing, specifically to India. In a lot of ways, Americans see outsourcing as something bad. Like we’re taking advantage of people in countries that are seen as poor. But learning about specific people and companies in India doing work that Americans don’t want was really eye-opening. The fact that many Indians see working in call centers as a really good job and something to be proud of! They endure rigorous training about certain technologies, have to learn English, have to then approximate an American regional access to the best of their abilities… not a lot of Americans would do that. So outsourcing isn’t bad – it’s business!
There were a handful of predictions in this book that were pretty interesting, and on point. I mean, anyone analyzing the rise of technology and innovations in business could probably easily see where the world was headed. And this book did that well.
Conclusion
Had I read this book when I was supposed to, it would have been an interesting look at then-current technology and business. Now, it’s a pretty decent history book. I will say that as interesting as it was, it did what a lot of books of its ilk do and droned on longer than needed from time to time. So I ended up rating this a 3 on Goodreads, although to be fair, it’s probably more of a 3 1/2. I haven’t seen any further updates to this book, but I’d be interested if the author wrote a follow-up talking about the next 10 years or so. Maybe he has and I just haven’t looked…
