Thomas Friedman, the well known columnist and author of “The World is Flat”, among other books, is criticized for writing five words in 25 sentences. Being verbose is no sin for a columnist, but more importantly what Friedman has to say in his latest book makes a lot of sense and so is worth writing about. Titled, “Thank you for Being Late….” Friedman says in essence his book says that, “We are not in the middle of one climate change: we are actually in the middle of three climatic changes: three non-linear accelerations, all at the same time and they are all interacting with each other…there is a change in the climate of technology …” Friedman talks of how many technological changes are driving our world and how globalisation has acquired a completely new character because of technological developments. In fact, globalisation is the second change he mentions. A touch can make a human, a society, far more powerful than ever before….like calling a taxi on Uber or communicating across the world through Twitter.
Says Friedman, “In the middle ages if you wanted to build your town along the banks of the Amazon for the river gave you transportation, nourishment, ideas and energy. Today you want to build your town, your country or your company on Amazon.com. You want to build it along the digital flow coming out of globalisation because the world today is all about who is in touch with the flow, not with the stocks…we have moved from the age of stocks to that of flows… stocks are less and less important..the third acceleration is the acceleration in nature.”
About the third change Friedman says, “We have been keeping records of average temperature for the past about 6,000 months…the last three months have recorded highest temperature of all these 6000 months...so the third change is the change in the actual climate …These changes are reshaping the world…reshaping five grounds in particular: geo-politics, politics, the work place, ethics and community. Because of this reshaping we need to be re-imagining all five…”
Dramatically enough Friedman tells us he interviewed a lady who knew it all to find the answers on how to build resilience and how to retain our value and importance in the face of the changes that are taking place. And who was that lady? Brace yourself to hear…Mother Nature.
This part of Friedman’s understanding of the world and the dramatic changes it is experiencing is a truth that has been and will be eternal. So reiterating is just as important as arriving at it in one’s own way to find meaning and sustainability in life.
Friedman says Mother Nature told him, “I am incredibly adaptive and so keep evolving with the changes. I love diversity. I am incredibly entrepreneurial…wherever I see an opening I put the right plants and animals perfectly adapted to that niche. I love co-evolution…the right trees with the right birds. I am sustainable,” and Friedman sketches the food chain. To this two-minute world of quickfixes and fast food he says Mother Nature told him, “I am incredibly patient, nothing strong is built fast… can’t speed up the gestation of an elephant. I do believe in the laws of bankruptcy…I kill all my failures and use that energy to nourish my successes. I am incredibly heterodox and hybrid.”
Friedman says that the future belongs to those communities who most closely resemble Mother Nature.
Along the way Friedman also weaves in tips for a perfect columnist saying those concerns led to him to writing the book. “ A news story is meant to inform. My business as a columnist is to provoke…stoking up an emotion inside of you or illuminating something. That is produce heat and light….A good columnist needs to combine three compounds. The first is how do you lean into the world, what is your philosophy. How does your machine work…that is what are the biggest forces shaping more things on more days, most of the time? And lastly about people, how the machine affects them…stir them together and write for 45 minutes and you produce a column.”
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