The Future of Success, by Robert Reich
We live in a free society (I'm writing from Canada), and there are obvious benefits. But there are dangers too: everyone is free to say things that are not true, and worse, to say things untrue in a way that is so convincing that even educated people will believe them to be true.
The influential intellectual Alvin Toffler has written about this, mentioning that we live in an age where where the means of deception are proliferating faster than the means of verification. In other words, the majority of information that comes to you is more likely to be false and misleading, than true and accurate.
Even journalists, who are trained to be accurate and objective, write and broadcast reports that are too fragmentary and/or momentary to be of any use or to have any practical value. I have nothing against journalists, I think they're good and honest people. Several of my friends are journalists and even anchor persons reading the news at six o'clock.
But today's society requires "intelligence", not information. Intelligence is information that you can use to make better decisions. A decision is good if it brings you closer to your goal.
Unfortunately, most news and cultural media don't offer any useful information for making better decisions in life.
Given the above, I would say that the book The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, is an unusual book because it forces people (at least those who are serious about their future) to face reality, and to make decisions RIGHT NOW about how they should proactively manage their career so they can succeed in a globalized economy where 3 billion new workers have just joined the workforce, via Internet. Note: read my next posting, which summarizes what you can do to survive and thrive in the new economy, according to Friedman.
A second book I highly recommend is Robert Reich's The Future of Success. It is smaller than The World is Flat: 250 pages vs 600 pages. Also, Reich used to be Secretary of Labour for the U.S., so his writing addresses more directly your concerns and priorities as a worker, as opposed to Friedman who is essentially a foreign affairs columnist who "stumbled upon" the concept of a flat world (i.e. one where the Internet is leveling the playing field for people living in the developing world).
The influential intellectual Alvin Toffler has written about this, mentioning that we live in an age where where the means of deception are proliferating faster than the means of verification. In other words, the majority of information that comes to you is more likely to be false and misleading, than true and accurate.
Even journalists, who are trained to be accurate and objective, write and broadcast reports that are too fragmentary and/or momentary to be of any use or to have any practical value. I have nothing against journalists, I think they're good and honest people. Several of my friends are journalists and even anchor persons reading the news at six o'clock.
But today's society requires "intelligence", not information. Intelligence is information that you can use to make better decisions. A decision is good if it brings you closer to your goal.
Unfortunately, most news and cultural media don't offer any useful information for making better decisions in life.
Given the above, I would say that the book The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, is an unusual book because it forces people (at least those who are serious about their future) to face reality, and to make decisions RIGHT NOW about how they should proactively manage their career so they can succeed in a globalized economy where 3 billion new workers have just joined the workforce, via Internet. Note: read my next posting, which summarizes what you can do to survive and thrive in the new economy, according to Friedman.
A second book I highly recommend is Robert Reich's The Future of Success. It is smaller than The World is Flat: 250 pages vs 600 pages. Also, Reich used to be Secretary of Labour for the U.S., so his writing addresses more directly your concerns and priorities as a worker, as opposed to Friedman who is essentially a foreign affairs columnist who "stumbled upon" the concept of a flat world (i.e. one where the Internet is leveling the playing field for people living in the developing world).
posted by Super Peter at 11:36 PM
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