The World is Flatter With Some Spikes
To me both authors are saying the same thing, but they are looking at it from different view points. Thomas Friedman says, “In a flat world you can innovate without having to emigrate.” While Richard Florida says, “ In terms of both sheer economic horsepower and cutting edge innovation, surprisingly few regions truly matter in today’s global economy.” I feel that both are right the world is flatter than in the past, but there are the important spikes. Friedman says the world is flat due to technology and Florida says technology has made the largest cities larger while leaving the valleys behind. I believe that technology has allowed people in the “valleys” to be more creative, find others’ information and build upon it, and test their ideas all from the comfort of their homes. They may have to move to a large city or spike to really make their idea a success, but they may have a better chance than if they just moved to a spike. I think that there will always be spikes because there must be a central place for people to meet and collaborate with one another. This is when the best ideas come together and become more powerful. There are always the people who can do this all remotely like the Apache people in the, World is Flat. For the most part I feel that Silicon Valley would not have been as powerful had everyone stayed in their original location. Plus not every city in the world can be a spike or flat, it would eliminate competition and then we would stop producing. The fact that there are only a few large spikes shows how important it is to have some places where innovation and production happen. But what makes the world flat is the fact that people in the valleys are able to be involved from another part of the world due to technology. This is a perfect example, Florida says, “Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs founded or co-founded 30% of all Silicon Valley start-ups in the late 90’s. But these fundamentally creative people had to travel to Silicon Valley and be absorbed into its innovative ecosystem…”. The Indians and Chinese were able to be creative in their own homes, and may have been successful, but had to move to get into the atmosphere to make sure of their success. This is also backed by Nobel-piece prize winner Robert Lucas. The mobility of technology and our selves is the greatest contributor to a flatter world but bigger spikes. This is because we are able to have the technology at home and take it with us when we leave.