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I recently got the new book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

It is definitely an interesting read, especially if you are in the tech sector.

One of the ideas that I liked was the phases that we have come through as a civilization:

• Phase One: Countries start working together
• Phase Two: Companies start working together
• Phase Three: Individuals from over the world start working together

I feel strongly about phase three. This happens every day for me. Someone helps me on a mailing list, I work with colleagues across the world, etc.

The book also talks about outsourcing, and how we (USA) isn't prepared. I have been involved in projects that outsourced technology, some failed, and some succeeded, so I know both are possible.

I did like the fact that you can obviously use the time difference to your advantage (versus as a pain). I would love to have an assistent overseas, so when I go to bed I shoot off an email saying: "Can you take these ideas and give me a top class powerpoint presentation back?", "Can you research X, Y, and Z wrt A, and have a summary in my inbox tomorrow morning?".

Definitely worth thinking about.