The World is Flat

I have been reading The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman the past few months. It seems like I just cannot complete reading it. Too many distractions in life and too may things that crop up whenever I pick up the book to read.

There are 635 pages and I am only at page 207 now. Because of my start-stop start-stop reading habit, I often forget what I have read before that and have to go back to reading the previous portion again.

Anyway, Thomas Friedman suggests that the world is flat and the flattening of the world is enabled by certain flatteners. These flattening forces worked together to create an almost flat world where people are interconnected together.

Lately, I experienced this flattening of the world personally. Here is my story:

I was trying to set up a wireless network at my place. After fiddling with it for sometime, I had no choice but to call the help line from the router company. I was directed to a call center that I believe is located in the Philippines!

After giving verbal instructions for close to half and hour, the operator decided that the problem was not being solved and directed to me to hand over control of my computer to him for him to fix it. Wow! So there was I sitting in my living room while I watched the mouse cursor moving all around the screen as the operator from Philippines gave an account of what he was doing to fix it.

The problem was fixed in the end and I can only say that I am amazed at how flat our world is today. Years ago, the solution would have been for a technician to come down to my place personally to settle the problem. Today, everything can be done online. Even the person fixing the computer can connect to your computer online. Simply AMAZING!

I can only concur with Thomas Friedman. The World today is indeed flat. Very FLAT indeed.