In-Class Timed Essay

Prompt: What does Friedman mean by the equation CQ+PQ>IQ? And what does this have to do with what Friedman calls the "Great Sorting Out"?

Friedman’s equation CQ+PQ>IQ signifies that an individual’s curiosity quotient and passion quotient outweigh his or her intelligence quotient. “The Great Sorting Out,” an adjustment period after the Triple Convergence, has rearranged elements of society. Those who benefit and succeed during and after the “Great Sorting Out” are those whose curiosity and passion outweigh their intelligence.

Friedman uses the equation CQ+PQ>IQ to emphasize that curiosity and passion are becoming more and more important than intelligence alone. Friedman notes that “when the world is flat, curiosity and passion…are so much more important” because flat world tools can take your curiosity a long way (303). He gives the example of curious children and students; he argues that these “curious, passionate kids are self-educators and self-motivators” (304). Earlier in the same chapter, Friedman addressed the “ability to ‘learn how to learn’” since it is “how you learn that will set you apart” (302). Since curious kids have a strong sense of motivation, they will learn well since they will grow to “love learning” (303). Therefore, curiosity is a great asset in the flat world.

In addition to curiosity, passion is also necessary for success. A passion for learning and “the innocent passion for a certain job,” a seemingly childlike characteristics, are almost essential for success in the flat world (305). Teachers, for instance, must love kids and be passionate about their professions in order to be truly successful and remain “untouchables.” Friedman defines an “untouchable” as someone “whose job cannot be outsourced, digitized, or automated” (278). One of the characteristics he gives of an untouchable is a “passionate personalizer” who can add a personal touch by being passionate about his or her job (294). Therefore, passion is another essential element for success in this new flat world.

Intelligence is not as important as it once was because of the large number of people with high intelligence and great technical skills. Because of the Triple Convergence, a couple billion people from “closed economies” ran onto the global playing field, many of whom were very smart. Intelligence does not prove to be as much of an asset as it once was, argues Friedman (304).

The “Great Sorting Out” rewards those people with high curiosity and passion quotients, not necessarily those with only high intelligence and technical skills” alone. Since the Triple Convergence has created a “connect and collaborate” society that must be altered and figure out (sorted out, really), passion and curiosity have entered the mix. Since during the “Great Sorting Out,” our “roles, habits, and…practices…have to profoundly adjusted,” our learning and education must be adjusted too. This is where passion and love of learning along with a curiosity for learning come into the mix. Those who are passionate and curious about learning will be rewarded in the flat world. After all, citizens of the flat world “are enabled to do many more things on their own” with new tools and techniques, but they need to be educated well in order to accomplish what they want to do. Passion and curiosity are essential in education.

Since people’s jobs are being automated, particularly those in sales, curiosity and passion are all the more important. According to the protagonist Willy Loman in the play Death of a Salesman, “the man who creates personal interest is the man who gets ahead” (256). Well, not exactly in a flat world. People must work harder to keep their jobs from being automated because it has now become hard “to create human bond[s]” (256). You must be passionate about whatever it is you do in order to succeed in the flat world because you want people to come to you, not a machine. Friedman buys expensive lemonade at sporting events from a man who is passionate and excited about his job (294).

In order to succeed in the flat world and during and after the “Great Sorting Out,” one must also constantly “upgrade their education and…knowledge skills,” argues Friedman (266). The way to do this well is to be curious about what you’re learning. You must be passionate about what you do because it takes passion to do hard work and good work. It takes passion and motivation, not intelligence, to keep learning continuously, a key to success during and after the “Great Sorting Out” in the flat world.


My Thoughts: This turned out to be a lot easier for me than writing about a nonfiction narrative (like Pham's Catfish and Mandala). For one, it was a lot easier to come up with organization because Friedman's book is organized by topic, so essay organization seems to flow rather naturally from that. I enjoyed reading this book, which made it a lot more pleasurable (and easier!) to write about. I feel that I brought in a lot of useful evidence because I made an outline prior to the timed in-class essay detailing the chapters I had read up to that point. In the writing process, these outlines really help me to solidify my point. In addition, careful reading of Friedman was essential to this assignment because he makes a ton of interesting points in a short amount of pages.