mmrobins.com

I enjoyed this book much more than I anticipated. Thomas Friedman’s summary of globalization proved to be a much more balanced and entertaining read than I would expect from anyone. While he overused quite a few cutesy terms that he used to explain himself (“globalization 2.0″, “Das Kapital”, “Lexus” as a symbol for modern and globalistic and “Olive Tree” as a symbol for old world and cultural), the broad overview provided of economics and world cultures merging was very well done.

Some people’s reviews I’ve read think that it was too “pro globalism”, but its premise wasn’t that globalism was good or bad, but that it was here to stay and let’s try to understand it. I think Mr. Friedman’s thoughts on globalism were well thought out and based on a lot more first hand knowledge than even most of our world leaders probably have. He has perspective from businesses, governments, individuals and his own perspective as an intelligent American citizen from Minnesota.

From the time that I entered the University of Washington as a college freshman and was part of the WTO protests that took place in Seattle, globalism has been a subject of great interest to me. This has been compounded by the fact that upon graduating from college the outsourcing of IT jobs has really hit home. I think that I’m adaptable enough that this trend won’t leave me unemployed or anything, but it’s nice to understand some of the forces that are at work, and this book is a great general way to do that.

I’m currently reading Friedman’s newest book, “The World Is Flat”, so I’ll be reviewing that in the near future as well.