Thoughts at 11pm
Okay, so it's been a very long time since I've written something here. I'm going to try to make it a point to write something weekly, but I'll understand if it takes time for the masses to come back and read. Many of you have come to this page, and realized that yet again, there was nothing new. Probably not reality, but I'll choose to believe it anyway.
"The World Is Flat" a book by Thomas Friedman...if you have not read it, read it! What's it called when a word can be said in two different ways to mean two different thing, yet it's spelled the same? Homonyms? Homophones is when they sound alike, right? Read and red? Hmm...
Anyway the book takes on the changing world, and talks about a confluence of 10 events, starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall has changed the world to a point that everyone is empowered to compete with each other. Well not everyone, but far more people than ever before. The global economy is now truly global, which in turn makes the world flat, which I guess means it's not global...Issues such as outsourcing are taken on, and in general shown to be good for our society. Now instead of 100 innovators, you have 200 or 300 innovators, because the intelligent populations of China, India, Eastern Europe and other places can participate in ways they could not before. Of course the downfall for Americans is that we cannot simply just be adequate at what we do, we have to do better. Interestingly the book definately instills the sense of urgency in the reader, but fails to recognize that not everyone in other countries are overachievers. It is true though, that if you take a group of 8th graders here and a group of 8th graders in China or India, the Chinese and Indians will smoke the Americans on any math and science exam. While that's a great ad for tutors, they fail to mention that Americans tend to be better at creative problem solving...which makes up for a lot. The point is that yes, Americans do have to work hard to stay ahead, but it's silly to think that our students cannot compete because others can do triple integrals better.
More on outsourcing and the variety of other influences that have come together will come in the future, as I finish this book! Something to look forward to!!
See you next week! And of course, feel free to tell me that I'm full of it...for now, my fingers hurt!
"The World Is Flat" a book by Thomas Friedman...if you have not read it, read it! What's it called when a word can be said in two different ways to mean two different thing, yet it's spelled the same? Homonyms? Homophones is when they sound alike, right? Read and red? Hmm...
Anyway the book takes on the changing world, and talks about a confluence of 10 events, starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall has changed the world to a point that everyone is empowered to compete with each other. Well not everyone, but far more people than ever before. The global economy is now truly global, which in turn makes the world flat, which I guess means it's not global...Issues such as outsourcing are taken on, and in general shown to be good for our society. Now instead of 100 innovators, you have 200 or 300 innovators, because the intelligent populations of China, India, Eastern Europe and other places can participate in ways they could not before. Of course the downfall for Americans is that we cannot simply just be adequate at what we do, we have to do better. Interestingly the book definately instills the sense of urgency in the reader, but fails to recognize that not everyone in other countries are overachievers. It is true though, that if you take a group of 8th graders here and a group of 8th graders in China or India, the Chinese and Indians will smoke the Americans on any math and science exam. While that's a great ad for tutors, they fail to mention that Americans tend to be better at creative problem solving...which makes up for a lot. The point is that yes, Americans do have to work hard to stay ahead, but it's silly to think that our students cannot compete because others can do triple integrals better.
More on outsourcing and the variety of other influences that have come together will come in the future, as I finish this book! Something to look forward to!!
See you next week! And of course, feel free to tell me that I'm full of it...for now, my fingers hurt!
posted by Mitesh at 8:15 PM
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