It's A Small (And Changing) World After All

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It's easy to stick our heads in the sand and say that the answer to "Life, The Universe, and Everything" is 42 . But we all very well know that the world we live in is a constantly changing one, thanks to evolution, industrialization, and the more recent trend and buzzword: Globalization.

After reading The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman, my interest in this topic was piqued. At one point or another, and in many cases unbeknownst to us, we have placed a call to customer service and actually spoken to somebody in India. In fact, as I learned from the book (or audiobook as it so happens), working in a customer call centre in India is a coveted position, and training includes adopting the english accents specific to each region of the US and North America. So although the person on the other side of the line may say their name is Andy and sound like he is from Georgia, he could very well be Ajeet and only have a vague knowledge of where Georgia is.

The big question that the book attempts to answer, but which is truly guesswork at this time is: What does this mean for us and the generations to come? Many careers will become obsolete as that work is farmed out to other parts of the world. Many brand new careers will be born as a result of this. Economies will change. Possibly even lifestyles and age-old customs will need to evolve with the times.

A beautiful video that encapsulates the flavour of globalization and that is being used in the education system (with both educators and students) is the Did You Know series. With special permission from creators Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, here is the latest and greatest:

Enjoy, and feel free to discuss!