Chapter 3: The Triple Convergence

Friedman never ceases to amaze in how he takes all of these concepts and events that have been happening right in front of us and presenting it in such a way that makes you think, "Why didn't I see it that way?" He calls this chapter the "Triple Convergence" because of the 3 huge events that flattened the world. The first event was the 10 flatteners coming together. These flatteners fed off of each other increasing each others' flattening power and flattening the world that much faster. Friedman relates them (quite cleverly) to the "simultaneous improvement of complementary goods", which makes a lot of sense, becase each flattener acts as a complementary good to the others. The combination of these flatteners created what Friedman calls the "flat world platform."

The second event was the combination of this platform with the realization that this platform existed and the subsequent reworking of the way one does business to take advantage of the platform. I see it like the Sony PlayStation 3. It's an amazing innovation, able to change the way a gamer views gaming. I, however, cannot experience this innovation because, for one reason or another, I have not bought the system. If you don't like my example, I enjoyed Friedman's quoted example of the IT revolution:

"When people asked, 'Why didn't the IT revolution lead to more productivity right away?' it was because you needed more than just new computers," said Romer. "You needed new business processes and new types of skills to go with them."

The third event was the entrance of billions of people that had never had the chance to collaborate before, getting the chance to play on the same field as the Americans and Western Europens. These are the Chinese, the Indians, the Russians. By joining the game, these people have flattened the world even further, by increasing the potential for collaboration. They also, however, increased the potential for countries such as India and China, who have MASSIVE pools of intellegent, well educated people with strong work ethic and unmeasurable drive, to surpass the leading countries in the game.