Thank You for Being Late

The first section of this book made me think, oh hey another book about the acceleration of technology and what it does to society and economy. But then Friedman starts weaving this together with globalisation trends and mother nature's transformations, and we learn how climate change is a major cause in the upheaval of African and middle-eastern cultures, leading to migration and terrorism, which in turn shakes the political stability of the whole world. It's all connected, fewer people can cause events of bigger consequences, and everything is constantly in fast-forward mode, which our human minds and societies have a hard time adapting to. This is where most voices start to panic, but Friedman is an optimist, and he closes the book with the example of his home town St. Louis Park, whose history of the integration of Jews mid last century has helped create a prosperous diverse community build on civic engagement and trust. Today's world and culture seem to be build on fast solutions, “guilty before proven innocent” and how the powerless need to compromise while the powerful don't need to compromise. Friedman list a couple of examples and initiatives of how we should learn from nature's resilience, how the biggest change to bettering our world doesn't come from top-down, but from the bottom-up. We have to support the families, the schools, the community groups, because they are the ones who will ultimately bring forth a stronger people, educated, with support structures and civic pride. Michael Sandel is a childhood friend of Friedman's who also grew up in this neighborhood, and Sandel's philosophy is very present in those last chapters.

One thing to criticise would be, that the title of the book “Thank you for being late” is definitely a misnomer, because even though the book leads with a tale on “take a breather and reflect” it does not touch this subject at all.

Short Review: I generally like Friedman's writing style (very story focused) and his world view (tech obsessed, culturally aware and globally focused). He is definitely susceptible to the charge of being a technocrat and maybe even naive about tech and the global economy being net positives.

This is a book that spends an awful lot of ink on the negatives of the world. But it is still an optomist's guide and that is another thing that I like about Friedman, he is still an optimist, not because he is uninformed about the world but because it is a natural part of the way he looks at the world.

This is a book about the perfect storm that facing us because of the increasing change in the areas of computing (primarily automation, big data, mobile capacity and miniaturization), globalization of the markets and ideas, and climate change.

The last third of the book is more personal. He tells some of his own story. How technology and global forces have changed his job as a journalist. And how the community where he grew up influenced his life. That ending is the inherently optimistic conclusion. Not that dealing with change is easy, but that it can be done.

My full (nearly 1500 word) review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/thank-you-for-being-late/