are you an untouchable?
I’m a huge fan of Thomas Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat. For those of you who haven’t read his insightful and engaging account of the new age of globalization, this article presents a nice overview of Friedman’s ideas. In a nutshell, he asserts that “we are now in the process of connecting all the knowledge pools in the world together” and, as a result, “we are on the cusp of an incredible new era of innovation, an era that will be driven from left field and right field, from West and East and from North and South.” Having read and re-read Friedman’s book, I’m grateful that Anita Sharpe at the Worthwhile blog linked to this transcript of a commencement address he recently gave at Williams College. So, what advice did Friedman offer those entering the real world beyond the ivory tower? Among other bits of wisdom for the road ahead, he shared what he terms a “survival strategy” for a flat world: “Do what you love.” Friedman's strategy rests on a simple fact of life in a flattened world: “The good jobs that will remain will be those that cannot be automated or outsourced; they will be the jobs that demand or encourage some uniquely human creative flair, passion and imagination. In other words, jobs that can only be done by people who love what they do.” He calls such people “untouchables.” I wonder how many of this year’s law school graduates would rank themselves among this group.
