Year Of The Pirate

After viewing Year Of The Pirate I have come to the conclusion that it was a good way to end the orientation process. Though not all of the orientation events were very entertaining, I was able to in the end see the benefit. In the end the show was a good way to reiterate what we had been told during the previous week. It was able to hold my attention better then most other informational shows. I don't know what this says about the youth of today where it takes foul language and crude jokes to hold attention, but it was a good way to ensure that everyone got the message. It was overall a very funny and informative show.

Response to The World is Flat #2

The Hunger

As we went around the dinner table, informing each other about our day’s events, we finally got to my mom and she told us about an email she received from a fellow co-worker. My mom started off by telling us that she had an important meeting she was preparing for that would take three days. She sent out emails to those that were to attend and wrote out what they needed to do to prepare for the meeting. My mom then received a reply from one person who said she would be unable to fulfill her duties at the meeting because she was “going to be sick on those three days”. This situation is a prime example of what Friedman talks about in his book The World Is Flat more specifically Dirty Little Secret #3: The Ambition Gap.

It has become more apparent that we are a “leisure-time society” as time and technology has progressed (Page 359). With the creation of technology that makes life easier, a wave of laziness has swept across our nation and has grown progressively worse with every generation. The older generation thinks the next is lazier than they were. We have all heard the stories told by parents and grandparents: ‘I used to walk to school uphill both ways in 12 feet of snow’ or ‘when I was your age I had to change the television channel by hand, we didn’t have any remotes.’ This is just a simple extension of what Friedman refers to in Dirty Little Secret #3. Due to our innovations in technology, our country as a whole has become lazy.

The trouble is that ambition and laziness, “start as early as high school if not sooner” (Page 356). The situation that the book refers to is the epitome of what most schools deal with today. There are those who say more work is needed and those that say too much work is assigned. I believe there is a balance that is to be maintained. Yes, there should be some room for fun and outside recreation, but being young and wanting to have fun is no excuse for not doing work. There have been numerous cases of this at my school, but the parents take it one step farther. At my school they are known as Plano moms. They try to live vicariously through their children going as far as doing homework and projects for their children. I was taking honors physics and we were assigned to build a bridge that would hold over 200 pounds out of just computer paper and Elemers Glue. I completed the assignment as instructed, and when the day came to break the bridge I volunteered and my bridge held 256 pounds and I received a 99. Then the teacher asked if anyone else wanted to go, nobody raised their hand. Since we were running out of time my teacher did not push the issue. While walking out the door I heard something that shook me to the core, a girl who had not gone was telling her friend why she did not volunteer. She very proudly stated that she had not broken her bridge because her mom was not there to see it, and since her mom had built the bridge the only courteous thing to do was to wait for her. Like Mr. Davidson wrote to Friedman, the parents who are overly involved in their children’s lives, “ are merely setting low expectations” for them (Page 357). By setting these low standards, and accepting them, we have, “in an academic sense lost our hunger. We’re complacent and headed for trouble” (Page 357). By doing everything for their children parents are severely inhibiting their ambition level and setting them up for failure. And because the people in India and other countries are more ambitious and less lazy than Americans, companies are increasingly outsourcing jobs to them.

Friedman quotes CEO’s of major companies as saying, “ The dirty little secret is that not only is [outsourcing] cheaper and efficient but the quality and productivity [boost] is huge” (Page 354). One worker in India will do the equivalent work of two or three Europeans without the six-week vacation (Page 354). Though this might not seem fair in people’s eyes here in America, if they are willing to do it and try their best, then why should we tell them no? I can see the beneficial part of outsourcing. I see it as giving others an opportunity to have a job that is better than any one they might have ever had. Yes, it does take some jobs from Americans; however, in the end there are many benefits that result from the innovations that are spurred by outsourcing. Without it, new technology or innovation might not be possible.

In the future, I believe that the world will be a very scary place if the ambition levels in America don’t change. Other countries will take over because they are hungrier than America. The laziness that has spread across the nation is a major problem that needs to be fixed because it directly affects ambition. People complain about jobs being taken by outsourcing and illegal aliens, but when asked if they would complete the same job for the same amount of pay, whether it be cleaning a bathroom or answering a phone call, everyone says no. People have no room to complain if they are not willing to put their money where their mouth is and do the job. In order to get away from this problem people need to take charge, work hard, and be ambitious. They need to get hungry.

Honor Code

The phrase "cheaters never win and winners never cheat" is what first came to my mind when I was listening to the honor code presentation. I see the honor code as an necessary evil. It is sad that we need it, but it is still useful for those who do their work and study only to see that their neighbor cheated and got the same grade. It is, in a way, a tool to help the learning process keep the education system fair for all students. It is a way to enable professors and students to have a very trusting relationship. If your professor has to question and ask if you really acted with honesty, then you are less likely to get the grade you deserve. The honor code as Friedman might say is a "flattener", it is a way to put everyone on equal ground.

Response to The World is Flat

Close To Home

After finishing the first two chapters of Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat I was overwhelmed with information and felt like my head was going to explode. Hoping this would pass, I decided to take a break and visit with some family since I was on vacation. After the usual meet and greet I was presented with a token from my cousin, a box of Pueblo Colorado mints. As part of the social norm I graciously thanked her and went about the rest of my day not even thinking about the mints. After cleaning up I sat down and saw the mints sitting next to me. As I played with them in my hands something on the back of the packaging caught my eye. In small little white letters was printed, “Tin made in China. Product Made in USA”. After staring at the tin the first 172 pages of Friedman’s book suddenly made sense.

Though I had, before reading this book, realized that goods were made in other countries then exported to America, I had never truly understood the progress that technology had made across the globe. After reading Friedman’s novel I was not only able to see the progress technology had made but also realized that I play an integral part in the process.

What particularly sparked my interest is the way that everything is interconnected in today’s rapidly moving, fast pace world. Take for example the gift from my cousin: the tin was created in China then shipped to the location where the mints were created in the USA, then shipped to the Wal-Mart where they were sold. Then when my cousin bought the mints and they were scanned, a signal was sent from the Wal-Mart to the warehouse where it shows that more mints need to be ordered for that particular Wal-Mart, and the process starts over again. What surprised me even more was how close I was to this process without knowing it. Over the past summer I worked at the local JCPenney, and after discussing the book with my parents was shocked to find that the same process that Wal-Mart uses to ensure that the shelves are always full is the same at JCPenney. Even as a low person on the totem pole, I play a significant role in the Fortune 500 Company, just by scanning every item properly. If I didn’t do my job then the store could be out of the particular goods the customers currently need or want.

My parents also work for JCPenney, however they play a more important role at the corporate office. My mom, being a buyer for the company, deals with a copious amount of e-mails. Until recently, however, my mother was not able to work from home because she could not login to her work e-mail because her home laptop was not able to interface with her office desktop (Page 83). Now, unlike the earlier years, because of the new developments in technology, our home computer and my mom’s work computer are speaking the same language and she can work from home. She can now perform all of the same tasks at home that she could at work except for attend her meetings. Which according to Friedman and in my opinion too may be a thing of the past very soon.

In the future, I believe companies like JCPenney will use conference rooms similar to the ones developed by the Disney Company (Page 77-78). With these conference rooms available and phones being able to be rerouted, like those outsourced to India, many business offices could be obsolete, as we know them today. However some of the one-on-one conferences will still be detrimental to the success of businesses, because there still needs to be, in my opinion, a human connection. There is a trust issue that comes into play with technology, which is why one-on-one meetings are still vital to business today to give comfort to companies. With advances in technology and the way businesses are run rapidly transforming, the world is without a doubt being flattened.

I do agree with Friedman. I think the world is definitely flat. I see where he is coming from with the ten forces that flattened the world. I do however think that there are some spikes and hills that have not yet been flattened. In the next few years, these spikes could very well be gone, some of which are located in the USA and not just in developing nations. Friedman referenced to a train ride in which he was traveling150 miles per hour, and his friend was still able to get a clear WiFi signal and e-mail (Page 165). However while on vacation in Colorado just an hour outside of Colorado Springs, a major city, I was not able to get an Internet signal. I was teetering on a spike in our flat world in ‘my own backyard'.

In the coming years, the entire globe will be flat and smooth and these spikes will be gone. However, what really makes me think is, what country will become entirely flat first? Will it be the USA or will the other countries like India, China, or Japan overtake us and beat us to the next big revolution. The United States can’t expect to be the only country in the race for the next big technological advance. We have our work cut out for us, and to keep up with these countries, we need to become as ‘hungry’ as they are for the next big advance in technology.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

The lecture which Susan Buchele gave concerning intelligence and learning curves was very interesting. The lecture was based on the novel Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. I was very surprised to learn that in the study conducted in the book, children who were praised for being naturally smart were less likely to take on a challenge, while on the other hand the children who were told that they must have worked really hard took on new challenges and perceived setbacks as just on opportunity to learn. The difference between the two mindsets fixed and growth was very interesting. Taking this study into consideration while at college or any learning level will greatly improve anyone's perspective on their own approach to learning or education. How you perceive your own intelligence can make or break you.