A Book Summary of ‘Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations’
Slow down and enjoy the view —
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” -Marie Curie
I noticed the catchy book title and started reading this book. To my surprise, I found a book that aims to explain the unprecedented speed things are changing in our everyday lives. How should we adapt? Will the world be waiting for us to adapt? Can we slow things down? The author of the book, Thomas L. Friedman answers these questions by focusing on 3 main accelerations (technology, globalization, and climate change) that — knowingly or not — are all rapidly changing at the same time.
Technology
Technology is the first accelerator and driving force behind the rapid changes we are experiencing. Friedman explained that this can be contributed by the exponential increase in computing power, which in turn, can be explained using Moore’s Law (named after Gordon Moore).
Even though mankind is a species equipped for constant change, the problem then lies within our speed and capacity to adapt. We are being outpaced by this massive force of Internet and cloud computing which he calls the “Supernova”.
The book explains that things begin to accelerate circa the year 2007, a year when we witnessed that computing power and processing speed have reached such a level that new technologies emerged and supplemented each other to produce even newer technology, and this keeps going on perpetually to bring about an exponential effect.
The launch of the 1st generation iPhones, Android, Kindle, cloud technologies like Hadoop and Google Cloud, along with increased bandwidth speed and mobility of networking, sophisticated software, and AI like IBM Watson, all came in about or around the year 2007. All these technologies came together (Smartphones + mobile Internet + unlimited storage in the cloud servers) and launched a modern-day technological revolution.
The Supernova is transforming everything digitally, in orders of magnitude. Despite the increasing rate of innovation and technological advancements, this rate of change began speeding up to disorienting levels and has put our ability to test.
And guess what? The world will only continue to speed up. For many, this will seem like a losing battle. How can someone keep moving and not burn out? How can someone ever survive in this age? One of my favorite quotes in the book came from Dov Seidman. He said:
Dov also mentioned about “pausing in stride.” To survive, it does not mean we should stop abruptly and give up. Pausing frees up capacities in us to see things more clearly and to form plans about how to best move forward. It is about continuing to move ahead while keeping balance, just like when we are riding a bicycle.
One of the best ways to adapt is to be a lifelong learner. With a big leap in technology occurring once every 5–7 years, this is a time when we have to shift our focus towards improving our adaptability, by developing a lifelong learning mindset. With an Internet connection, any learning material online is available to us. Friedman wrote about how AT&T reinvented itself when it changed its business model from communication cables to broadband and computing. Global telecom is one of the most intense businesses in the world, and to remain resilient and future proof, many employees have to be retrained with the latest skills such as computer science, cloud computing, data science, and machine learning. To fill this technical gap and remain competitive, AT&T partnered with Udacity and universities to embark on a retraining program for some 200,000 employees, many of whom were educated from another age.
This leads to the formation of some kind of social contract with the employees — AT&T provides subsidized or free tuition for any course, training or degree; and in return, the employees have to constantly learn the required skills and improve themselves on their own initiative. An employee has to agree to this social contract to keep their job — be a lifelong learner to be a lifelong employee at AT&T. If the employees do not agree to this, they can no longer be lifelong employees.
Globalization and Geopolitics
The second accelerator Friedman talked about is the expansion of globalization — made possible by technological “flows”. These “flows”, or the interconnections of knowledge, are enabling limitless opportunities for individual “makers” or “breakers” to either build a better world or ruin it. For instance, a very basic mobile phone nowadays offers SMS texting capabilities and mobile Internet access to any individual from anywhere on Earth who can afford one. This creates a previously unimaginable global exchange of goods and ideas. It made worldwide collaboration among engineers, scientists, and policymakers so much easier. Looking at the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we can see how technology flows enabled the virus’ genome to be sequenced, and then made accessible to the healthcare community worldwide, triggering a truly global effort of top scientists and biologists to jointly combat it.
Take for another example the rloop online community that brings together thousands of individuals with the same mindset and interest to develop a futuristic transportation mode — the Hyperloop. Many of these engineers have not met each other in person, but thanks to the Supernova, complicated engineering projects of such scale can be done with intense and close collaboration. On an even larger scale, each country’s collaborative input could contribute to the overall advance of humanity’s scientific discovery and technology advancement. We have the tools to fix many of our current problems on the planet — climate change, education, healthcare, famine, and natural disasters.
On the flip side, globalization and a digitally connected world are also creating a party platform for ‘breakers’. Technology has elevated the power of the individual to be much greater than in the past. Nowadays, we see more Internet trolls and users promoting xenophobic views, flaming racial tensions, and posting fake news. The smallest voices can now be heard everywhere. With the same mobile phone and an internet connection, it could be used as an “MRI scanner” for recording and reporting incidents, and then, flipping it over, it turns into a broadcasting device.
Any individual can post anything online without going through an editor or information filter, and the same person can now coordinate cyber-attacks, steal online information, and spread propaganda.
In one of the chapters, Friedman categorized countries into “Order” and “Disorder”. He mentioned that countries with a relatively straight or 90-degree border are the ones that are usually disordered.
These countries are the most artificial — and the problems we see today due to poor governance, corruption, political instability, are impacting third world countries the most. This creates a big population of citizens on the move from the “Disorder” countries to better places, usually Western or developed countries. This spurred a massive nationalism movement from countries of “Order”. In this age of accelerations where progress and failure are exponential, it is becoming more complex to revive a failing state. To avoid cascading failures and outright state collapse, it is important for developing countries to put into office the right government for proper and diligent governance.
Due to the accelerations mentioned earlier, we have never been here before as a species — where one of us can kill all of us, and all of us can save and fix everything.
Climate Change
The population is exploding. There are now more than 7 billion of us. When Friedman examines climate change, he gives an illustration of the “rain room” to describe the impact of human activity on the climate.
The rain room is an interactive room fitted with sensors and visitors are asked to step into a torrential downpour. These sensors will ensure the rain stops at the spot where a visitor is stepping on. However, only 7 visitors are only allowed at once. Too many people and there would be no more rain in the room. As a species, we have become large enough in numbers to be a force of nature. Now, we can literally turn the rain on or off. Accelerated climate change means more severe typhoons, rainfall or floods in certain regions, but also more severe droughts and bush-fires in another. We are seeing hockey stick graphs of CO₂ levels in the atmosphere, global temperature, and ice sheet melting.
We are now at an inflection point where our decisions will either destroy or preserve our planet. With the latest technology and “flows” available to us, what we do now, or fail to do, will determine the future of Mother Nature and our future generations. How can we continue to provide energy at scale to billions of us while preserving Mother Nature?
Conclusion
Friedman ends the book by showing us how he finds ‘calmness in the eye of the hurricane of change’. He brought us back to his hometown community in Minnesota where he explores how his childhood community created a “topsoil of trust” and communal values that worked on an increasingly diverse population. I find it enlightening that some of the world’s biggest problems can be solved by just having a strong community and a common good of the community. A community that embraces diversity — for believing others who are different can and should belong to, which builds bridges of understanding to span mutual trust will be our anchor and our sail. Despite all the advances made by humanity, the underlying factor is still personal interaction. We need to maintain collaboration and trust to continue the pace of accelerated innovation.
After reading this book, I have a better idea of the “accelerators” at play that are changing our world and how they work together. I got to know of the possibilities and dangers of what people, companies, and governments can do to prosper…or perish. It also taught me to pause, to reflect, and to appreciate this period where things need to change more rapidly than before.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is asked to dance in a hurricane of change.
