The end is upon us

            

                            Module 9!

        Looks like this is the last of the book, I never thought I would see the day but of course this is the beginning of the last portion of this class. So here it is, the beginning of the end, and let us hope I don’t screw this up.

Building a Dell

            So Mr. Friedman wants to explore the supply chain and everything that it took from the first mineral on a chip-set that created the computer that this book was written on. Did we not already talk about supply chains? I just felt this was a little redundant but I will type away for the sake of keeping an acceptable grade. Friedman’s laptop is a custom built Dell that he had ordered over the phone, requesting custom features that eventually led to the writing of this book. I learned that Dell, at the time, has six factories around the world, Ireland, China, Brazil, Tennessee, Texas, and Malaysia. After Friedman had contacted the sales rep his order was placed through email to the factory in Malaysia and parts were ordered from various supply centers near Malaysia and as you guessed it those supply centers had a supply chain of their own to get materials they needed to make the various parts needed to eventually assemble the computer sitting in Friedman’s lap. To me I find it interesting that even though there are various competitors in the computer manufacture world, they all still work together, example, Friedman’s laptop uses a mother board from Samsung, who of course makes computers of their own, you would think they would try to make a mother board of their own design but as it turns out it is cheaper and more efficient to have that contract with other competitor companies to manufacture their chip-set. I would go into more detail on what parts came from where but I feel like you get the point.

Al-Qaeda Supply Chain?

            I am trying my best to wrap my head around this concept without being too prejudice thanks to my American upbringing, because of course since 9/11 there has been a surge of racism to those of middle-eastern decent. From an outsiders perspective it looks like a third world country so to my belief it seems like their possibilities or likely hood of having a supply chain or knowing what one is would be inferior, lest we not forget though that we do live in a connected world and such people most likely do have access to technology to better connect and communicate with others within their network of globalizing terror. So yes, al-Qaeda does have a similar supply chain to companies that benefit from it like Infosys, but instead of making a product to increase company profits it is used to streamline global murder, terror, and mayhem, but the first rule of fight club is we do not talk about fight club, and the first rule of project mayhem is we do not ask questions, so I will end that thought here.

The curse of oil

            Where there is oil, there is some asshole that sees dollar signs and seizes power in some form to collect profits in his or her own greedy pathetic lives. Friedman mentions something that really had me thinking, of a ruler has control of oil, then he or she could use the money earned to run their country instead of taxing the people, so without taxation why should there be representation, it’s not the people’s money so why is it their business to ask questions as to where the money is spent? Hell, why not keep the people silent, on top of not taxing the people we could keep gas prices lower because we control the world’s oil supply as well. In that kind of world, I probably would not even think to question my government because of how much power they would have, I would be afraid to. So the curse of an oil rich government is the people suffer, if I had control over that kind of money and that country, why should a democracy be in place to decide how my money is spent when it is only my money being spent, thus there is no benefits the people get to take part in, schooling, roads, voting, and so on.

            Well, talking about the book, though I felt some parts were vague there were times it made me think differently about the world and how to perceive it or the society we live in, thanks to Columbus, Steam, the PC, and the Internet, our world is flatter, smaller, and better connected.

You have died of dysentery.

                          Module 8

            I remember my first experience with a personal computer, I had to have been three or four years old and living in San Diego. I was visiting my grandparents and I remember plugging in a true floppy disc and booting up Reader Rabbit from DOS and “.exe” was a phrase that I had become familiar with, of course Reader Rabbit was educational computer game that I had best known other than jumping on shit with my friend Mario.

To my memory we as a family did not have our own PC in our possession until after we had moved to Utah in 1994 and of course it was not until my father had started his own mortgage business that we had owned one finally. My dad bought a used Packard-Bell computer running Windows 3.1 when at the time everyone was running Windows 95 with Windows 98 soon on the horizon, and with the help of our first PC my dad started to manage his own business at home, he had no office other than the computer desk nestled in the corner of our living room and held files of his customers in a milk crate in the trunk of his car.  Whenever my dad was not on the computer, I had my chance to explore, and I eventually was the house computer genius, figured out how to open my own programs and play anything from paint to minesweeper to doom, I was a natural at being tech savvy. I remember my dad managing his accounts and calls from a computer call center that for the life of me I cannot remember the name of, but I do remember terrorizing my baby sitter with the use of such a brilliant program, and the ability to record active phone calls only to replay back to our parents after they made it home from their date night and for them to witness with their ears the heinous words from our very own 14-year old baby sitter. Yeah, my brother and I were little terrors, but it was one of the only times we had gotten along in uniting against a common enemy.

Other than the small home use it was not until my fourth grade year that I had an actual chance to use a computer in a classroom environment, and the first time I had to experience the internet to my memory. We did small research assignments creating some of our first reports and of course practiced typing with Mavis Beacon, but nevertheless I made my was back to the classroom where we had an Apple II and I had the chance to play Oregon Trail on it in my free time. Dysentery was something I had no knowledge about, but I had a feeling that at some point in my life that it would take me too, because on the Oregon Trail, everyone died of dysentery, and with that logic, I would die with the same disease in my life.

At home we did not have much money to afford the monthly fee of internet, or at least my dad was too cheap to pay for something that I could actually get for free with Juno, and deal with that horrendous ad bar that took up a good quarter of the screen. Juno, however, did introduce me to the power of e-mail. I do not think once in my life I experienced e-mail through AOL other than seeing such at a friend’s house, but learning the power of e-mail was pretty cool and something I used frequently to talk to family in California, but not much more than that.

High school and of course college has been the extent of my computer education use. Again mostly with writing papers, and doing research for homework, but I did get a little computer use in my theater tech classes throughout high school and little college which was pretty cool considering having the ability to sync sound boards with lighting effects and other special effects.

Now with college, especially with this class, I have never really understood the importance of this digital age, and realizing how intertwined it is now in my life. Its beginnings well before my life, how it influenced, and still influences my life, and still I will say how excited I am for the future of technology and really to think how much has changed in electronics and technology just in my life or even in the last five years. It is all new and exciting and even before this class I had never desired to set up this blog, but with my electronic quill and ink I am able to jot down my own thoughts for others to read or comment on or just have my own personal diary, I know that a blog may be old news but I really enjoy that, and now thanks to realizing the power of the cloud, I have this, some homework, you-tube, g+, and so on backed up in the vast internet network, and to find the end of it is just unfathomable. Thanks to computers, I did not die of dysentery, and my imagination is endless.

My theory is that Gene Simmons is the true father of Miley Cyrus.

            With a long week of writers block from someone who is far from ever having the sheer insanity, paranoia, insomnia, and occasional chain smoking of a true writer, am now back at it, really pumping out a pile of refuse that one would call a blog (I do not, nor ever will consider myself to have those traits listed above to call myself a writer.) I just had a hard time getting back at it, maybe because of laziness, procrastination, or a hellish work week (with a side of GTA 5) I am giving this blog a mighty dose of bullshit. Thanks for giving this a chance, but seriously, set the bar extremely low this time around.

Why are some countries or regions better at doing some things than other countries or regions?

            I think, and mind you this is personal opinion and thought, that now that with a flattened world, and a level playing field, that more countries have been forced to be more competitive to stay relevant in a large world market. If I had to compare with Friedman’s words and his talks about Mexico, it just makes sense. Look at China, huge world population, and a culture with a severe attention to detail. Compare that to the U.S. we have our own automated culture, electronics and videogames, it is just hard to keep up with those kind of cultures and countries who are in a situation where they have to pay attention to such detail on manufacturing and of course to earn their pay they pump units out faster and more efficient with their large population working for every dollar they can earn. The U.S. has a better business relationship with China rather than Mexico just for that reason. Even if you compare the engineering aspect of India and the large rise of those outsourced jobs, you have to consider that in a flat world, sometimes the more dedicated worker gets the leg up in competition with other countries, and that just comes down to pure dedication, or a culture that strives on that dedication to remain competitive in the rest of the market. So, in retrospect I would say it is just that, some countries just have that edge, with a government, or a culture, or an economy that demands that dedication to stay competitive with other countries.

What are self-directed consumers? Are you a self-directed consumer?        

            A self-directed consumer is someone who does their own research before purchase of product, among other things, that is pretty much it. Yes, I do find myself a self-directed consumer, largely with the help of the internet I have a huge advantage and convenience to access that data at my fingertips. I research on electronics and other technologies that interest me from time to time even if I lack the means to purchase such equipment. Example, I hate my phone, the battery life is horrid and I am pretty sick of charging it up to three times a day. I think it is time for a new phone but I cannot upgrade until the end of my contract in May 2014. So, I explore my options and notice some of the top phones in reader reviews or you tube just to make my choice or at least narrow down choices even though I am not in the position to purchase a phone without contract for somewhere up to $600 dollars, or in some cases more. So, as I look through my options I see that I could purchase a used phone, they are guaranteed but they are fairly dated and I just do not want to run into the same deal with my current phone, plus being a big geek like myself, I have to have the latest and greatest. I did enough research to determine that either I wait to the end of my contract and buy the top product of that time, or I see reports and rumors of the google nexus 5 due to be announced at the end of the month, and I can purchase that phone at the same price as if I was to wait and purchase a quality contract handset device.

Does globalization mean Americanization?

            No, well yes? Seriously I feel like this is a hard question to answer, America is a very large market that just about every country is pushing to stay in business with. Outsourcing, manufacturing, etc. From what I have read, and to my understanding, to distinguish the line between globalization and Americanization is this: you look at how countries are competing to stay relevant in a dominant U.S. market, so with China as an example, they do their American research in order to create products that are relevant to our culture. So I imagine they watch our pop culture and see Miley Cyrus twerking with her tongue out and probably think “WTFuck?” I don’t blame them if they do, in fact I see some of their culture and think the same. But, if they want to stay in our market sometimes it is wise to shrug your shoulders and create a product that the consumer wants. So yes, in a way it can be considered Americanization, but if I was to consider a different country as being a world leader other than the United States, would I call that Arabicization? I say that without trying to make up an offensive word for anyone. But considering the massive growth of Dubai over the last two decades it’s not hard to think that it would be a definite possibility pending political mishaps, and unwinnable wars, that we may not be at the top of the economic food chain, and the deciding factor in Globalization forever.

Nobody works harder at learning than a curious kid

            This week on The World is Flat, we dive into free trade, what is it? Why is it important? Also, what kind of personality makes a “new middler, and what skills does it take?”  Later we sit down with the distant relative of C-3pO, also known as CQ + PQ > IQ, learn about it and how it is important.

Free Trade    

            What the hell is free trade? This is something that I do not understand, so with the Friedman book and a little help from the internet, I will explain. Starting with an old friend, Wikipedia, definition is this: Free trade is a policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or interfere with exports by applying tariffs (to imports) or subsidies (to exports) or quotas. Friedman expresses importance of free trade with his China-America story and explains how not only does it open up trade lanes and boost the world economy, using outsourcing and offshoring is now easier and creates more competition in the industry between companies. Friedman mentions because business had opened up the possibility of workers in other countries that competition has pushed Americans to keep up with that competition and stay educated in that job market or skill level. With the influence of a healthy American economy and outsourcing of these jobs it will push the lower level countries we acknowledge in free trade to improve their countries wages and thus improve their economy strengthening the overall world economy. Of course opening up the world market with the help of free trade has a major effect on the overall world economy.

The New Middle

            This book in my opinion keeps this explanation kind of vague so I will explain to the best of my deciphering abilities.

            A new middler is middle class jobs, only fewer. A worker that moves where the business is, especially in collaboration jobs in sales, marketing, maintenance, and management and these people will need to be a good horizontal collaborator and be willing to work comfortably with a global company. What skills and personality traits make a new middler? Friedman says that they have to be special or specialized, like Michael Jordan, or J.K. Rowling, they have to be localized or anchored, and they have to be in the middle class jobs and be willing to be flexible and constantly re-skilling or training themselves to new innovations and technologies that arise. In my opinion it would be beneficial to be very multilingual as well as multicultural to better understand the market you are doing business with. So to be multidimensional and multicultural is highly desired in a global workforce market. The question remains, how willing are you to move where the business moves if you have the desired skillset? My answer depends on two things before I would even consider the move, first would be how good is the pay? Really would it be worth it to make that move? Also, how it the environment where I would be making the move, is the area safe and how easy would it be to blend into that culture?

CQ + PQ > IQ

            CQ is curiosity quotient, PQ is passion quotient, and IQ is intelligence quotient. Friedman lives by the equation stated above and in Friedman’s words, he would rather take a person with the curiosity and the passion to learn or try something new over an intelligent person any day. I guess that is true because you could have someone who is very intelligent and with an ego to never learn something new as well as lazy and probably not get as much productivity out of him or her. A curious and passionate person is a self-motivator and self-educated, they have that drive, passion, and desire to learn and be a better person. I find that true to some of us in college. For example I will use myself, now in high school I found myself to be an intelligent person however I was lazy and failed miserably. I took a shot at college five years ago and realized all of the wonderful things a college can bring me, however it was trying times for myself and I dropped back. As I registered for classes I figured out that it does not matter what you know, but what you desire to learn, and how hard you are willing to work for that success. So this time around I am seriously challenging myself, it will be tough and I am sure I will fail, but I feel like to fail is to learn and I will just keep working at it to be successful. I am curious to learn new things, it will be a bitch to work at it, as well as hold a full time job, but I try to keep pushing myself to get that successful end result. To end this module I am pulling a quote from this book that I love as well as use it as my title for this blog, Friedman even states that it should be engraved on every doorway to every school in America, the quote is: “Nobody works harder at learning than a curious kid.”