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The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Book by Thomas L. Friedman · 8 quotes · Openness, Adaptability, Appointment

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The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Quotes

“It is so easy to demonize free-market and the freedom to outsource and offshore because it is so much easier to see people being laid off in big bunches, which makes headlines, than to see them being hired in fives and tens by small and medium-sized companies, which rarely makes news.”

Growth Perspective Perception Optimism

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

“Goods are traded, but services are consumed and produced in the same place. And you cannot export a haircut. But we are coming close to exporting a haircut, the appointment part. What kind of haircut do you want? Which barber do you want? All those things can and will be done by a call center far away.”

Economics Goods Call Haircut Appointment Barber Exports

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

“One of the newest figures to emerge on the world stage in recent years is the social entrepreneur. This is usually someone who burns with desire to make a positive social impact on the world, but believes that the best way of doing it is, as the saying goes, not by giving poor people a fish and feeding them for a day, but by teaching them to fish, in hopes of feeding them for a lifetime. I have come to know several social entrepreneurs in recent years, and most combine a business school brain with a social worker's heart. The triple convergence and the flattening of the world have been a godsend for them. Those who get it and are adapting to it have begun launching some very innovative projects.”

Empowerment Social Entrepreneurship Community Development

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

“When Muslim radicals and fundamentalists look at the West, they see only the openness that makes us, in their eyes, decadent and promiscuous. They see only the openness that has produced Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. They do not see, and do not want to see, the openness - the freedom of thought and inquiry - that has made us powerful, the openness that has produced Bill Gates and Sally Ride. They deliberately define it all as decadence. Because if openness, women's empowerment, and freedom of thought and inquiry are the real sources of the West's economic strength, then the Arab-Muslim world would have to change. And the fundamentalists and extremists do not want to change.”

Freedom Openness Terrorists Radicals

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

“Culture is nested in context, not genes.”

Humility Openness Adaptability

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

“A Nobel Prize winner was asked how he became a scientist. He said that every day after school, his mother would ask him not what he learned but whether he asked a good question today. That, he said, was how he became a scientist.”

Curiosity Openness Parenthood Questioning

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

“Virulence is the sound of a self-selecting community talking to itself and positively reinforcing itself with no obligation to answer to anyone or look anyone in the eye.”

Prejudice Ideology Openness Extremism Assumptions

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

“No low-trust society will ever produce sustained innovation.”

Relationships Risk Graciousness

Book:The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century