SAST Wingees

The World is Flat – a critique

Finished reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Thanks to Nambikumar Palani for insisting that I read this excellent book.

Overall I think this is a book that everyone interested in current affairs must read. Friedman should be complimented for not presenting a dystopian view of globalization given the amount of  negative sentiments currently prevailing about globalization. He has peppered the book with numerous anecdotes, mini case studies of  endeavors/companies that all of us should be aware of, such as: The Digital Divide Data in Vietnam, Aramex of Jordan, Conservation International, Abraham George’s Shanthi Bhavan School, ASIMCO in China etc.

Its also a chock full of  little known facts such as – the apt description of globalization in The Communist Manifesto (!), the fascinating story of how Friedman’s laptop was put together by Dell’s global supply chain etc.

Friedman has also given some excellent pointers on how companies and individuals should cope with globalization and actually take advantage of it. More importantly, he has clearly brought out the benefits of globalization.

Now for some of the negatives:

1. Flat is a difficult metaphor to attach to the globalization phenomenon. Of course, without that metaphor, Friedman’s masterful packaging and positioning of this book would perhaps not have happened effectively. One was almost inundated with references to this book regardless of where one went – conferences, award ceremonies, company presentations, water cooler chats.

2. Friedman tries very hard to create a theory out of his observations in an otherwise excellent book on globalization. The result of this is that there are too many references to Flat –  Flatteners, Flatism, Compassionate Flatism and even Coefficient of Flatness, oh! please. At some points you feel as if you are reading a new religious/political doctrine – Compassionate conservatism having been made famous by the GOP.

4. Since Friedman chooses inappropriate monikers for his theory like Triple Convergence and Ten Flatteners and keeps referring to it throughout the book, you have to keep going back to the original references to those terms to digest what he is saying  – to invoke Friedman’s metaphor, you get Flatulence.

3. Noticed a few inaccuracies like  – India and China have no natural resources and hence globalization is key. I was surprised to see such a basic inaccuracy. India has a lot of natural resources and probably China has even more. Its possible that Friedman equates Oil to natural resources because when he talks of the oil-rich arabic countries he talks about abundance of natural resources.

One more I noticed –  where he describes how India and China can quickly change the curriculum of  the students without having to jump through the hoops as in the US. I don’t know too much about China but given the speed at which the Chinese Government passes laws and enforces them could mean that they can change the curriculum quite fast as well. As for India, education is a state subject like in the US and given the democratic setup a broad consensus has to be achieved to push through changes. So education reforms move at a glacial pace like everything else.

4. I was also surprised to see that the book does not have a bibliography section, especially a book that intends to propound new theories. For instance, when he talks about the ills of globalization, he mentions that if India and China start consuming the way the first world is doing today, it will lead to serious enviromental disasters. I am sure Friedman has heard of Jared Diamond’s recent book Collapse, which talks about how self-inflicted environmental disasters have been the typical cause of crumbling civilizations.

In sum, this is a book I would strongly recommend.  

References:

1. Hilarious rant of Friedman’s book in the New Yorker by Matt Taibbi.

Excerpt  – Let’s speak Friedmanese for a moment and examine just a few of the notches on these antlers (Friedman, incidentally, measures the flattening of the world in notches, i.e. “The flattening process had to go another notch”; I’m not sure where the notches go in the flat plane, but there they are.)

2. Wired Magazine on Why the World is Flat

Flash back – Grid Architecture and Mintel

My question posed in Sep 2004 – “When will IT departments adopt this idea en-masse” referring to Google’s Cluster Architecture is beginning to get answered:

1. First, Uber-naysayer Nicholas Carr kicked it off with “is the server doomed“.  Vinnie joins in with his opinion and also rounds up other’s opinions in his “hardware as a service” post. (BTW, Vinnie writes some excellent stuff on offshore outsourcing – worth reading if you are interested in that topic.)  As I had mentioned before, you may also want to keep track of Peter Yared and his company Active Grid. “Why Grids Make Sense” is an excellent post by Peter Yared. 

2. On a parallel track, there is an interesting discussion going on about why the Whole Widget makers like Sun, IBM and HP maybe gaining ground on Microsoft and the Wintel camp. I think a grid architecture with open source and commodity PCs as the Grid Server is possibly the only way the developing world can build a world-class server infrastructure in a evolutionary manner. The Whole Widget route is simply too expensive.  

I had predicted when the news about Apple-Intel marriage that Apple will pursue a Mintel strategy to attack the Wintel Software market. Well, Macslash reports that someone has been able to run Mac OS X under VMWare on a Intel box.

Meaningless Road Signs

This post from Dilip has a collection of comical stuff including a set of road signs in the Nagpur to Wardha road indicating distances to Kanyakumari!

Having been a NJ resident for over 5 years, I was reminded of the ubiquitous signs that point to the Garden State Parkway (GSP) with nothing more than a pointed arrow. If you follow those arrows faithfully, rest assured that you are not likely to get to the GSP because it may actually be a bit far away as in 30-50 miles away! Yes I have followed those signs several times and gotten lost. The one GSP sign that takes the cake is the one you find in the NJ/PA border on route 78. As you enter NJ you will see a GSP sign with a pointed arrow and in this case GSP is only 40 miles away at exit 50 or something like that! So next time you see a GSP sign in NJ and get lost, get yourself a GPS.

Who moved my cheese?

I have been resisting reading this book since it was published. One of my colleagues recently forced me to read it. It took me all of 20 minutes to read it – it is a very small book.

Spencer Johnson has masterfully handled the subject of dealing with change using an allegorical story of 2 mice  (Sniff and Scurry) and 2 humanoid little people (Hem and Haw). Writing on this topic would have forced any author to get into lecturing the reader and would have lost them without conveying the message. Since Spencer Johnson has chosen the story form he has avoided this problem and has managed to convey the message very well. As you read the story, you can easily identify yourself with the number of times you have been Hem and why should have been more like Haw.

Who moved my cheese is a must-read book for everyone, especially those in management.

Benjarong Thai Cuisine delights

One of my collleagues was here from the US and we took him to Benjarong Thai on TTK Road for dinner tonight. The ambience was very good, the waiters were friendly as well. The menu was extensive with a number of dishes that we had not seen in Thai restaurants before. The food was authentic and extremely good. I would strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone. Benjarong means “Five Colors” – same as our Paanch Rang!