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Translating the translation

Tom Friedman does a grand job writing.  He is a NY Times columnist with many insightful books to his credit.  His recent work is called 'Thank you for being late'.  Below is my summation of the book.

I re-read it this weekend.  It is in his words a work of explanatory journalism.  He tries to distill complex ideas and concepts that occupy the world we live in and translates it to English.  From English.  He is right.  There is a vast ocean of data out there and not everyone has time nor energy to sift through it to get on close to even keel with what it all means.

Authors like Friedman or Neil deGrasse Tyson are amazing at making the arcane readable and understandable.

The Thank you book is the author's realization that we live in an ever accelerating world where we do not take a moment to pause.  Pausing allows people to start he quotes.  To start thinking, assimilating thoughts in their head perhaps even achieve wisdom.

We are all wound up to chase this and that and often our culture promotes the work hard and play harder lifestyles that in fact lead to many detrimental side effects.  But it need not be that way.

His book deals with three large themes prevalent today and affecting our very future - Globalization, Climate (change) and Technology.  He takes readers through amazing story telling on appreciating the big changes or as Malcolm Gladwell would call Tipping Points in civilization to present day and explains what it means to our future.

From Hadoop to the politics of climate and the general trends in migration and instant gratification there is many complex subjects handled with aplomb in a somewhat long treatise.  Nevertheless highly recommend it for a long plane ride.

My personal life philosophy matches this outlook where one needs to at least and perhaps first simply grasp the basic tenet of any new fad before becoming an unwilling victim to its popularity.  Pause. Think.  Decide.

Don't just click the Like button.

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