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A review by omgwtfkvb
The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
slow-paced
1.0
I bought this book back in college...why? No idea. I think one of my friends bought it, and I wanted to seem smart or something so I bought it too. But I finally sat down to read it. I tried to keep in mind that the book was written like 20 years ago and I should keep that in mind but even still.
Jeeeeeeeeeesus. 660 pages for a concept that could easily be an op-ed or blog post. By the first third of the book, I understood the point he was trying to make. Especially because he is so clearly proud of the concept he's come up with that he mentions "the flattening of the earth" ad nauseam for the entire book.
On top of that, the guy straddles the line between absolutely adoring capitalism and hating socialism (of course he does! Capitalism rocks! Boo socialism!) and then comparing and contrasting things that just....don't need to be compared and contrasted. I don't think the same book needs to breakdown how awesome Walmart is for its automation (Walmart is not awesome lol) while also dogging on entire areas of the world because they're not white Anglo-Saxons. One section started off as questionable at best before just deep diving into full blown racism and xenophobia. Fun! Gotta hit all our marks, guys.
On top of that, the narrator insisted on using accents for each person he was referring to. Maybe...don't do that in the future. If you really need us to understand someone is Indian, maybe hire multiple narrators and have actual Indian people read those sections.
Honestly, this book would've been a DNF if I didn't own the damn thing and I have a weird perverse desire to never quit and never surrender. All that being said - don't waste your time. Technology has made processes and procedures speed up all around the world and therefore has "flattened" it. The end, saved you 660 pages.
Jeeeeeeeeeesus. 660 pages for a concept that could easily be an op-ed or blog post. By the first third of the book, I understood the point he was trying to make. Especially because he is so clearly proud of the concept he's come up with that he mentions "the flattening of the earth" ad nauseam for the entire book.
On top of that, the guy straddles the line between absolutely adoring capitalism and hating socialism (of course he does! Capitalism rocks! Boo socialism!) and then comparing and contrasting things that just....don't need to be compared and contrasted. I don't think the same book needs to breakdown how awesome Walmart is for its automation (Walmart is not awesome lol) while also dogging on entire areas of the world because they're not white Anglo-Saxons. One section started off as questionable at best before just deep diving into full blown racism and xenophobia. Fun! Gotta hit all our marks, guys.
On top of that, the narrator insisted on using accents for each person he was referring to. Maybe...don't do that in the future. If you really need us to understand someone is Indian, maybe hire multiple narrators and have actual Indian people read those sections.
Honestly, this book would've been a DNF if I didn't own the damn thing and I have a weird perverse desire to never quit and never surrender. All that being said - don't waste your time. Technology has made processes and procedures speed up all around the world and therefore has "flattened" it. The end, saved you 660 pages.