Reviews
Recipe for survival Thank You for Being Late — An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving In The Age Of Accelerations. By Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2016, 486 pp. $28 US.)
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or an optimist’s guide, Thomas Friedman lays out a lot of not particularly uplifting, inconvenient truths. A century ago, it took our ancestors a full generation to adapt to major shifts. Now we can adapt within 10-15 years. Unfortunately, technology platforms are turning over every five to seven years. The pace of change is increasingly outstripping human adaptability. Many of us can relate to Friedman’s story about the Dutch chess grandmaster who, when asked how he would prepare for a match against IBM supercomputer Watson, replied: “I’d bring a hammer.” Since the forces driving the changes won’t slow down, Friedman encourages us to focus on learning to adapt. For Friedman, our modern era, “the age of accelerations,” grew out of a series of technological advances in 2007. The maximum speed of data transmission, and computing power dramatically rose just as the cost of both to consumers fell dramatically. The iPhone, Facebook, Twitter, Android, the Amazon Kindle, the scaling of YouTube following its purchase by Google, and IBM’s Watson, which signaled the dawn of the era of cognitive computing, all roughly came on the scene in 2007. Simultaneous accelerations in technology, globalization and climate change, interacting with each other are reshaping our world, he suggests. We need geopolitical and moral innovation, reimagining and rede-
The Marketplace November December 2017
signing workplaces, institutions and governments “to reimagine how we scale sustainable values to everyone we possibly can.” That moral challenge is his call to action in dealing with a myriad of hazards. Embracing lifelong learning, diversity, pluralism, being open and collaborative are the keys to future success. Renewed efforts to strengthen community and “ownership culture” are crucial. Societies need to get more people to practice the Golden Rule, inspiring “sustainable values” to inspire hope and resilience, he says. “The Golden Rule has never been more important and more in need of scaling.” The way forward involves anchoring “as many people as possible in healthy communities.” Today’s political divide is not between left and right, but open versus closed. Friedman makes a passionate case for openness. “For our survival as a species, our very notion of ‘community’ has to expand to the boundaries of the planet.” Friedman’s arguments implicitly endorse the business solutions to poverty approach at the core of MEDA’s mission. “When we invest in the tools that enable young people to realize their full potential, we are countering the spread of humiliation, which is the single biggest motivator for people to go out and break things.” 20
Scholarships and economic opportunities for the poorest of the poor are far more effective ways to build friendship and stability among nations than tanks and fighter jets, he argues. Chicken coops, gardens and access to high speed broadband Internet connectivity for African villages are among the cost-effective solutions he proposes to the problem of refugees and economic migrants. Restoring a hectare (2.471 acres) of degraded land costs between $100$300, providing a family with the ability and motivation to stay in their homeland, a bargain compared to the $42 a day it costs to house a refugee in a camp in Italy. He would like to see the US Peace Corps become an equal branch of the U.S military, playing “offence” to the military’s “defense.” This expanded agency would work to create economic opportunity in impoverished countries, “thus helping more people to live decently in their home countries and not feel forced to flock to the World of Order.” He also favors US foreign aid to developing nations being tied to making progress on gender equality. “We are approaching a world where acting together, we could sustainably feed, clothe and shelter every person, as well as cure virtually every disease, increase the free time of virtually every person, educate virtually every child, and enable virtually everyone to achieve their full potential.” Despite all the challenges, he remains optimistic. “We have exactly enough time, starting now.” MS
