Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations

二十一世紀的生存指南！找到暴風眼，與颶風共舞全球暢銷作家《世界是平的》湯馬斯．佛里曼（Thomas Friedman）最新力作！《出版者周刊》2016年秋季最受矚目書籍之一在講求速度的時代裡，人類生活的各種層面，正以排山倒海之勢產生改變。當今世界最具影響力的三種力量，分別為科技、全球化與大自然（氣候變遷與生物多樣性的喪失）。在這些力量的急速發展下，人類可能得到拯救世界的嶄新契機，卻也可能邁向毀滅。湯馬斯．佛里曼提出，2007年為關鍵的一年，科技急遽發展，重要事件包括iPhone上市、臉書出現、推特向全球拓展等，他稱之為「超新星」：科技能量的大量釋放，重塑日常生活的一切，從人際關係、搭計程車、到國家的命運，都產生劇變。當一切事物的行進都變得如此快速，作者提出「遲到」的論點－－我們應該稍作停頓，反思人類面臨的可能性與危險性；在這個歷史的轉捩點，我們必須找到「暴風眼」，尋求動態的穩定，找到在如颶風般狂暴的時代裡，得以支撐自己的力量，進而在颶風中跳舞！湯馬斯．佛里曼到各地旅遊、到處採訪，以一貫的智慧與樂觀，帶來他迄今最有野心的著作。他認為，只要放緩腳步、敢於遲到，花些時間反思一切，我們可以克服時代的速度帶來的暈眩與壓力，並站穩腳步。本書提出人類社會的未來藍圖，是不可或缺的二十一世紀生存指南！A field guide to the twenty-first century, written by one of its most celebrated observersWe all sense it—something big is going on. You feel it in your workplace. You feel it when you talk to your kids. You can’t miss it when you read the newspapers or watch the news. Our lives are being transformed in so many realms all at once—and it is dizzying.In Thank You for Being Late, a work unlike anything he has attempted before, Thomas L. Friedman exposes the tectonic movements that are reshaping the world today and explains how to get the most out of them and cushion their worst impacts. You will never look at the world the same way again after you read this book: how you understand the news, the work you do, the education your kids need, the investments your employer has to make, and the moral and geopolitical choices our country has to navigate will all be refashioned by Friedman’s original analysis.Friedman begins by taking us into his own way of looking at the world—how he writes a column. After a quick tutorial on that subject, he proceeds to write what could only be called a giant column about the twenty-first century. His thesis: to understand the twenty-first century, you need to understand that the planet’s three largest forces—Moore’s law (technology); the Market (globalization); and Mother Nature (climate change and biodiversity loss)—are accelerating all at once. These accelerations are transforming five key realms: the workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, and community.Why is this happening? As Friedman shows, the exponential increase in computing power defined by Moore’s law has a lot to do with it. The year 2007 was a major inflection point: the release of the iPhone, together with advances in silicon chips, software, storage, sensors, and networking, created a new technology platform. Friedman calls this platform “the supernova”—for it is an extraordinary release of energy that is reshaping everything from how we hail a taxi to the fate of nations to our most intimate relationships. It is creating vast new opportunities for individuals and small groups to save the world—or to destroy it.Thank You for Being Late is a work of contemporary history that serves as a field manual for how to write and think about this era of accelerations. It’s also an argument for “being late”—for pausing to appreciate this amazing historical epoch we’re passing through and reflecting on its possibilities and dangers. To amplify this point, Friedman revisits his Minnesota hometown in his moving concluding chapters; there, he explores how communities can create a “topsoil of trust” to anchor their increasingly diverse and digital populations.With his trademark vitality, wit, and optimism, Friedman shows that we can overcome the multiple stresses of an age of accelerations—if we slow down, if we dare to be late and use the time to reimagine work, politics, and community. Thank You for Being Late is Friedman’s most ambitious book—and an essential guide to the present and the future.