I used to think this was true, and then I read Thomas Friedman's new book, "That Used to be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back." He made me realize that the world I grew up in--particularly the world of economics and work--had changed so rapidly and so completely that my experiences could no longer serve as a guide to my grandchildren.
You may recall that Friedman--A NY Times columnist and winner of 3 Pulitzer Prizes-- wrote a book called "The World is Flat." According to Amazon's review: "What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet."
"The World is Flat" was written in 2005. Since then, according to Friedman: "When I wrote The World is Flat, Facebook didn't exist, twitter was a sound, the cloud was in the sky, 4G was a parking place, applications were what you sent to colleges and Skype, for most people, was a typo. That's how much the world has changed in just a few years."
Freidman sees the George Clooney movie, Up in the Air, as a perfect metaphor for the first decade of the 21st century. Clooney plays someone who is always on an airplane because he's hired by companies to handle the firing of their employees who are no longer needed due to advances in technology. Eventually, Clooney is replaced by a young woman who comes up with the idea that it's less expensive to fire people over the internet rather than in person.
He tells about a large law firm which is now downsizing during the current economic difficulties. When Friedman asked the firm's head which lawyers were being fired, he received a surprising response. The firm had added many competent lawyers during the boom times. They did the work assigned to them in a competent and professional manner. They have been let go. The lawyers who stayed were the ones who added something "extra" to their jobs. They figured out how to do their work more efficiently, or how information technology would allow the firm to move into new areas of work.
When I finished the book, I purchased copies for my children. I told my son that there were 3 reasons I was giving him the book: 1) It would help him do his job better and give him an advantage over coworkers who had not read the book. 2) He works with large corporations, and understanding how their worlds were changing would help him keep his job. 3) The world is changing so quickly that if he gives his son career advice based on his experiences, it will be outdated wisdom.
My daughter-in-law was wondering whether their son, who is currently in eighth grade, was being pushed too hard in school. His counselor was recommending several advanced placement classes when planning his high school courses. I told her a story from Friedman.
Friedman's mother-in-law is the board chairman at Grinnell College, which is a small liberal arts college in Iowa. Last year, 10% of Grinnell's applications came from China. Of those 250 Chinese applicants, 50% had perfect 800 scores on the math SAT. Those kids are the people who will be competing with my grandson for jobs in a few years. Friedman's comment is that even Americans in "good" schools aren't getting an education that's good enough when compared with the education that is provided by many other countries.
Let me conclude with a wonderful piece of video. It's Friedman talking about his book at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The video runs for about an hour, but I promise you it is one of the best hours you'll spend. Even if you don't read the book, you'll learn something.
Personally, I think the best gift you can give your grandchildren this Christmas is to give a copy of "That Used to be Us" to their parents. Here's the video:
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