Book SummaryThank You for Being Late, by Thomas L. Friedman

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Thank You for Being Late

A thousand years, ago, the world changed gradually—someone could live their entire life without seeing any major inventions. When there was a change, humanity had two or three generations to adapt.

Today, however, change hits fast and hard. Starting in 2007, the rate of change exploded, and by 2016, it was taking only five to seven years for the world to be noticeably different. Humanity has gotten faster at adapting due to the ability to share information and greater literacy, but in general, the world’s ability to change outpaces our ability to adapt to that change. The world changes at an accelerating pace, while humanity adapts at a constant pace.

This mismatch causes several problems:

• We feel cultural angst—we feel dislocated, disoriented, lost, and constantly behind.
• We can’t benefit from the new technology.
  • (Shortform example: Computers were invented before courses on how to use computers were developed. As a result, it took time before the average person could effectively use a computer.)
• We can’t make laws fast enough to keep up with inventions and the problems they cause.

Thank You For Being Late aims to explain: what the current conditions (as of 2016) are and how we can best adapt to them. The book’s title comes from one of the author’s personal strategies for adaptation: taking time to reflect and reorient. He has such a busy schedule that he only ever gets moments to reflect when people are late to meet him, and he’s learned to be grateful for this time.

Three Forces Are Shaping the World

According to the author, there are three major forces shaping the world: technology, globalization, and climate change.

These three forces all interact, and growth in one drives growth in the other, which is part of why the world feels so unstable today—everything’s changing at once. For example, technology and climate change interacted when the invention of the gas-burning engine contributed to climate change.

Technology

Technology is the first force that is shaping the world. It accelerates at an exponential rate, according to Moore’s law, which states that computational processing power will double every two years with only small increases in price.

The author discusses the five parts that make up computers and how they’ve dramatically advanced in a short time:

1. Sensors are devices that recognize environmental factors such as light, pressure, oxygen concentration—almost any of the things humans recognize using their senses—and then report this information to a computer via a signal. Over the years, sensors have gotten smaller, more efficient, and cheaper as materials and nanotechnology improved. Today, sensors, combined with people, make problem-solving much more efficient.

• For example, Bigbelly garbage cans are fitted with sensors that can determine when they’re full. Once at capacity, they send a signal to garbage collectors. This saves collectors a lot of time—they never have to guess if a pickup will be necessary.

2. Storage is technology that retains data. (Sensors and their ability to collect large amounts of data wouldn’t be of any use if we have no way to keep the information around long enough to analyze it.) Over the years, storage capabilities have improved as memory chips became more powerful and software made them more efficient. Today, collecting, storing, and sharing information is almost free, and there’s no tradeoff between cost and speed—you can have both.

• For example, Hadoop is a system that links hundreds of computers to combine their processing power and storage capabilities. Hadoop allows companies with large amounts of data, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, to analyze their data.

3. Software is a program that tells a computer what to do. Over the years, software advanced in two ways: by improving software-writing tools and increasing collaborative tools—the more great minds that work on a project, the more impressive the results of the project will be. Today, the open-source community collaborates to quickly create powerful software.

• For example, Microsoft originally only ran on Windows, and when the company made the decision that they wanted it to run on the operating systems Linux and Mac too, they released the code to the public on a platform called GitHub. Impressively, the GitHub community created the Mac version overnight.

4. Networking is the system of cables and wireless networks that connect computers and smartphones all over the world. Via these cables and networks, people can share anything that can be digitized. Over the years, it became faster and cheaper to transmit information as wires improved and networking software and new standards were developed. Today, it’s possible and very inexpensive to transmit huge amounts of data quickly and networking is crucial to the acceleration of the other three computer components above because it allows new advances to be shared all over the globe.

• For example, in 2013, the internet in Chattanooga was fast enough that T Bone Burnett (in LA) and Chuck Mead (in Chattanooga) were able to perform a duet of “The Wild Side of Life” without any lag.

5. The “supernova” (the cloud) is a term for the services and software that run on the internet instead of locally on your computer. The supernova is unique because it’s both powerful and far-reaching—in the past, the tools were only one or the other. Today, you can access anything on the supernova from anywhere in the world, on any device, as long as you have internet access.

• For example, Watson, a cognitive computer, lives in the supernova. Watson isn’t just a repository of information, however; it helps doctors with diagnostics: If IBM gives Watson 3,000 images, 6% of which show melanoma, Watson will use its algorithm to determine distinguishing features of melanomas such as shape and color. Then, when it’s given an image of a...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Part 1: The State of the World Today | Chapter 1: The Age of Accelerations

Today, the world is accelerating at a pace never seen before, which results in many people feeling destabilized or lost. Thank You For Being Late aims to explain:

• How today’s conditions arose (Parts 1 and 2)
• How we can best adapt to them (Part 3)

One of the important things we can do to feel more stable is to take a moment to reflect and reorient ourselves, which is where this book’s title comes from. Author, reporter, and columnist Thomas Friedman has a busy schedule, so busy that he never has any unscheduled time in which to think. He only ever gets moments to reflect when people are late to meet him, and he’s learned to be grateful for this reflection time.

How Today’s Conditions Arose: The Pace of Change

A thousand years ago, the world changed gradually. Someone could live their entire life without seeing any major inventions or overhauls to society, and when there was a change, humans had two to three generations to adapt before the next change came along. Additionally, changes took a long time to spread across the globe. Changes happened first in major cities and then spread to the countryside and only years later made it to other parts of the...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on the State of the World Today

The world is changing faster than ever.

What discoveries and world events have significantly changed how you do your work or live your day-to-day life?

Thank You for Being Late Summary Part 2: Three Forces Shaping the World | Chapters 2-3: Moore's Law

According to the author, there are three major forces that shape the world: technology, globalization, and climate change. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 will cover technology, and subsequent chapters in Part 2 will cover globalization and climate change.

These three forces all interact, and growth in one drives growth in the others, which is part of why the world feels so unstable today—everything’s changing at once. For example, technology and climate change interacted when the invention of the gas-burning engine contributed to climate change.

How Did We Get Here?

The author starts his history of technological acceleration with the microchip, the part of a computer that runs the programs and is responsible for memory. Microchips are made of wires and switches called transistors, and the more transistors a microchip has, and the faster electrons move through the transistors to turn them on and off, the more powerful the chip is.

In 1965, Electronics magazine asked Gordon Moore, R&D director of Fairchild Semiconductor (later Intel) to predict what was going to happen in the microchip industry over the next decade. Moore looked at what had happened in the preceding years and...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Chapter 4: Cloud Computing

In Chapters 2-3, we covered four out of the five parts of computers that are affected by Moore’s law. In this chapter, we’ll talk about the fifth part, the cloud, which is so significant—as significant for humanity as the discovery of fire—that it requires its own chapter.

The cloud, or as the author prefers to call it, the “supernova,” is a term for the services and software that run on the internet instead of locally on your computer, for example, Netflix, Dropbox, or Microsoft Office 365. You can access anything on the supernova from anywhere in the world, on any device, as long as you have internet access. The supernova is unique because it’s both powerful and far-reaching. In the past, tools were either one or the other.

Like networking, the supernova is a major player in the acceleration of all the other parts of computing because it allows any type of technology to be constantly updated, improved, or shared. The supernova increases the power of:

• Machines. Machines now have most of the same five senses as people and a “brain” (computer) to interpret them. For example, machines have cameras to see things, and their programming can recognize subjects in...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Chapter 5: Globalization

Accelerations in technology have resulted in a corresponding acceleration in globalization—the flows of knowledge and information that connect the world and make every part dependent on all the other parts.

How Did We Get Here?

Advances in technology made globalization possible. In the 20th century, pre-internet, the economy was based in the exchange of physical goods, services, and money. In 1990, when the internet was just emerging and 435 million tourists traveled around the globe, the global flows of finance, services, and goods were 24% of the world’s GDP.

Today, physical flows have slowed or declined, but the transmission of data across the globe has shot up. In 2014, 1.1 billion tourists traveled around the globe, and the global flows of finance, services, and goods were 39% of the world’s GDP. Digital goods, such as ebooks or movie rentals, are much easier to distribute globally than physical goods, and eventually, 3-D printing might digitize even more products.

Additionally, since 2005, cross-border internet traffic is 45 times larger. Almost a billion people have at least one international contact on social media, and on Facebook, 50% of people...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Chapter 6: Climate Change

As a result of the accelerations in technology and globalization, climate change—what the author calls “Mother Nature”—is also accelerating at a pace greater than anything seen before in human history. For example, on July 31, 2015, Bandar Mahshahr, Iran recorded a heat index (a combination of heat and humidity) of 163 degrees Fahrenheit, one of the most extreme readings ever recorded anywhere in the world.

How Did We Get Here?

The earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago and scientists divide this time into chunks (epochs, periods, and eras) based on major events that happened at certain times.

For most of the earth’s existence, the climate swung between hot periods and ice ages and human life as we know it couldn’t exist—the climate was too unpredictable for agriculture, city-building, or industrial revolutions.

Then, after the last major ice age approximately 11,500 years ago, the earth entered the Holocene epoch. In the Holocene, the climate and environment created a perfect balance for human life. The atmosphere contained the right amount of gases to keep the global temperature survivable, forests released enough oxygen to make the atmosphere...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Part 3: Adapting to the Accelerations | Chapters 7-8: Adapting the Workforce

Now we understand all three accelerating forces acting on the world—but what do we do about them? There are two options: 1) try to slow things down, or 2) increase humanity’s ability to adapt.

Option 1, putting on the brakes, isn’t going to work. It’s impossible to stop the accelerations and regain static stability. Even if it wasn’t impossible, the accelerations have created some major problems, such as climate change. We need the accelerations, particularly of technology, to come up with solutions.

Option 2, adaptation, is the only way forward. Adaptation involves:

• Striving for dynamic, rather than static, stability. Dynamic stability means innovating in every sector except technology.
  • An example of dynamic stability is riding a bike—you can’t balance if you’re not moving, but once you are moving, you only need to make steering corrections, not create new momentum.
• Increasing the pace of innovation in social technologies (laws, organizations like the UN, and so on) with the goal of catching up to the pace of innovation in physical technology (cell phones, microchips, and so on). **Even if we only slightly increase our ability to adapt, it will...

Shortform Exercise: Adapt to Changes in the Workforce

The three accelerations of technology, globalization, and climate change drive change in the workforce.

Which parts of your job could be automated? Which parts can’t?

Thank You for Being Late Summary Chapter 9: Adapting Geopolitics

The second sector that requires social innovation to keep up with the three accelerations is geopolitics.

Historical Geopolitics

Pre-acceleration, maintaining geopolitical stability was about armed forces, nuclear weapons, and regulation of weapons—essentially, conventional military power. After World War I, nations fell and new ones rose, for example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire became Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia and after World War II, many nations, such as India and Senegal, gained their independence from colonizers. In between World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the geopolitical arena was fairly stable.

Average Nations

Most of the new nations didn’t have the resources to create strong governments or industries. However, at this period in time, they didn’t need to be strong, just average. The internet didn’t exist yet, so people couldn’t compare their situations with those of others around the world, automation wasn’t a threat yet, and China was keeping to itself and wasn’t competing for low-wage jobs. Most countries hadn’t used up all their natural resources and climate change hadn’t yet affected agriculture. Most countries...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Chapter 10: Adapting Domestic Politics and Culture

Domestic politics and culture is the third sector that needs to adapt to the three accelerations.

Historical Domestic Politics and Culture

In the 20th century, the US political system centralized and nationalized political power and directed it towards big problems such as social programs. This was logical in the 20th century because smaller governments weren’t very powerful—certain individuals had more money than states and municipalities.

Federal power was further consolidated in the 21st century. The Great Depression’s New Deal created national programs such as Social Security, and in World War II, even more responsibility shifted from smaller levels of government to the federal government as it tackled issues such as urban decay and pollution. Then, the Cold War created more federal responsibility.

All of the above events contributed to the maintenance of the two-party federal system. The Republicans oppose immigration, want to relax the rules on the market, and want to cut taxes, while the Democrats support social programs and regulation.

After the massive technological changes in 2007, the 2008 recession hit and politics stalled because leaders couldn’t...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Chapter 11: Adapting Morality

The fourth sector that requires social innovation to keep up with the three accelerations is morality, which the author appears to strongly associate with living according to God’s teachings.

Historical Morality

Unlike in other sections, the author only briefly covers historical morality by discussing two views on God:

• God is always present and actively rewards good and punishes evil.
• God only becomes present when we act in a moral way. Free will is critical to this view because if acting morally isn’t a choice, then it’s meaningless.

Current State of Morality

There are two major components to morality today: 1) as a result of the three accelerations, almost everyone has godlike powers, and 2) the acceleration of technology has created new, digital spaces that are impossible for anyone, moral or not, to govern.

Everyone Has Godlike Powers

Today, we have more free will than ever and almost everyone has access to godlike powers. For example, technology and globalization allow an individual to affect people all over the world, and humanity as a whole is changing the climate. Because everyone can be a god, people’s individual sense of right and...

Thank You for Being Late Summary Chapters 12-13: Adapting Society

The final sector that requires social innovation to keep up with the three accelerations is society. The author presents his hometown, St. Louis Park, Minnesota, as a model for how society, specifically communities, can adapt to the accelerations.

Historical State of St. Louis Park

Between the 1880s and early 1900s, many Jewish immigrants settled in North Minneapolis because it was one of few areas they could get housing—anti-Semitic discrimination was rampant throughout the city. Jews were banned from all sorts of public institutions and had to start their own schools and hospitals.

In the 1950s, many Jews were fed up and left North Minneapolis for St. Louis Park. St. Louis Park was more welcoming than other suburbs, and it was platted for starter homes and Realtors didn’t mind selling to Jews. By the 1960s, around 20% of people living in St. Louis Park were Jewish.

Most of the other people living in St. Louis Park were Catholic and Protestant Nordic and German-descended Americans. There were plenty of clashes between these people and the incoming Jews, but at the same time, people started to figure out how to live and work together.

Part of this, the author...