Economist Best Books of the Year
Financial Times Business Book of the Month
'A handbook for disruptors' - Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google
We're living in a time of amazing technological innovation, but we're not paying enough attention to one of the most important innovations of all - one that's going to be a wellspring of progress for a long time to come.
This innovation is to the company itself - a new model is being pioneered by geeks who have instituted a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can - and should - be.
They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time. They have all dedicated themselves to approaching business as a geek would - through trial and error, egalitarianism, evidence and stress-testing ideas in a group setting rather than relying on the boss's instincts. McAfee's groundbreaking exploration of this emerging phenomenon gets to the heart of the tectonic shifts taking place all over the business world.
The future will be 'geek'. By investigating contemporary research in psychology, economics and behavioural sciences, as well as first-hand accounts from the 'geek' leaders of today, McAfee shows us how this new age will transform everything we think we know about how business is done, now and into the future.
'The most compelling analysis I've seen of what Silicon Valley has learned about building more effective organisations' - Adam Grant, host of TED podcast Re: Thinking and number one New York Times bestselling author of Think Again
Chosen for Economist Best Books of the Year in 2023 and Financial Times Book of the Month in November 2023.
About the Author
Andrew McAfee is the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Second Machine Age. He is the co-director of the IDE and a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His research investigates how information technology changes the way companies perform, organize themselves and compete. In addition to having numerous papers published, McAfee also writes a widely read blog, which is at times one of the 10,000 most popular in the world. He is also the author of More from Less and The Geek Way.
Industry Reviews
Andy understands that we geeks haven't just been creating new technologies in Silicon Valley - we've also been creating new and improved ways to run a company in a world permeated by tech. Here he distills what we've come up with. This book is a handbook for disruptors -- Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google
It's the most compelling analysis I've seen of what Silicon Valley has learned about building more effective organizations, and what they still have to learn -- Adam Grant, host of the TED podcast Re:Thinking and #1 New York Times bestselling author * Think Again *
By combining management theory, competitive strategy, the science of evolution, psychology, military history and cultural anthropology, McAfee has produced a remarkable work of synthesis that finally explains within a single unified theory - The Geek Way - the reasons why the tech startup approach has taken over so much of the world -- Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and New York Times bestselling author * The Start-Up of You *
Companies that don't follow The Geek Way will fall behind -- Amy C. Edmondson, Professor of Leadership & Management, Harvard Business School and bestselling author * Right Kind Of Wrong *
In industry after industry, corporate boards are asking management what their plan is to thrive in an unsettled, fast-changing environment. The Geek Way contains among the best answers I've seen to this critical question -- Dambisa Moyo, Member of the House of Lords and bestselling author * Dead Aid *
I've worked closely with Andy for more than a decade. I'm blown away by this book. It's bold and original, relevant and rigorous, and immediately useful for any restless, curious innovator. In other words, for any geek -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and New York Times bestselling author * The Second Machine Age *
Andrew McAfee's The Geek Way outlines what has become a critical advantage for the United States, for Silicon Valley, and for many companies. If you wish to understand the last twenty years of life, and probably the next twenty as well, this book is essential reading -- Tyler Cowen, author of Big Business
