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The Geek Way

The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results

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The Geek Way

Written by: Andrew McAfee
Narrated by: Andrew McAfee, Sean Patrick Hopkins
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About this listen

In this "handbook for disruptors" (Eric Schmidt), The Geek Way reveals a new way to get big things done. It will change the way you think about work, teams, projects, and culture, and give you the insight and tools you need to harness our human superpowers of learning and cooperation.

What is “being geeky?” It’s being a perennially curious person, one who's not afraid to tackle hard problems and embrace unconventional solutions. McAfee shows how the geeks have created a new culture based around four norms: science, ownership, speed, and openness. The geek way seems odd at first. It's not deferential to experts, fond of planning and process, afraid of mistakes, or obsessed with "winning." But it explains everything from why Montessori babies turn out to be creative tinkerers to how newcomers are disrupting industry after industry (and still just getting started).

When all four norms are in place, a culture emerges that is freewheeling, fast-moving, egalitarian, evidence-driven, argumentative, and autonomous. Why does the geek way work so much better? McAfee provides an original answer: because it taps into humanity's superpower, which is our ability to cooperate intensely and learn rapidly. By providing insights from the young discipline of cultural evolution, McAfee shows that when we come together under the right conditions, we quickly figure out how to build reusable spaceships and self-correcting organizations. Under the wrong conditions, though, we create bureaucracy, chronic delays, cultures of silence, and the other classic dysfunctions of the Industrial Era.

Mixing cutting-edge science, history, analysis, and stories that show the geek way in action, McAfee offers a new way to see the world and empowering tools for seizing the big opportunities of today and tomorrow. Entrepreneurship Geeky Management & Leadership Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Small Business & Entrepreneurship Business Management Leadership

What the critics say

“[A] smart, irreverent, informative guide to navigating the future of work. Companies that don’t follow The Geek Way, according to author Andy McAfee, will fall behind...Each of these simple words contains more than you can know, until you read this remarkable book.”—Amy C. Edmondson, Professor of Leadership & Management, Harvard Business School, and author of 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, Global Economist; Member, House of Lords
"I've worked closely with Andy for more than a decade, I'm still 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 co-author of the New York Times bestselling The Second Machine Age
“Juxtaposed to our outsized celebrity obsessed culture is the rise of a subtler but infinitely more powerful shift toward geek culture. The hegemony of geekdom in Silicon Valley and across the world is the underlying force that drives innovation and powers our economy. Andrew McAfee’s The Geek Way is the guidebook for understanding this shift and navigating these turbulent times.”—Richard Florida, bestselling author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis
“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, with a single unified theory (which he dubs "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 of The Start Up of You
"How fast can you find out you are wrong? This is the predictive metric of success in Silicon Valley. Mcafee explains why the leaders who build organizations that will help everyone who works there learn really quickly whether they are right or wrong will win in the new economy. And he shows why the leaders who allow their success to dampen their eagerness to hear about it when they are wrong have sown the seeds of their own failure. Essential!"—Kim Scott, author of the New York Times bestselling Radical Candor and Radical Respect
All stars
Most Relevant
I read these types of books for their application to learning communities like school. Openness, ownership, speed, and science discussed in this book adds to my understanding of agile project management and project based learning. It gives me something to think about in terms of building culture and how we assess and provide feedback to others. I found this book helpful to building a better school community.

A synthesis of modern business culture

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I enjoyed this book. There is a lot of research and I especially appreciate the Montessori school, what geeks are and AA details. In terms of performance, I found the speaker’s voice fluctuates downwards in an attempt to be profound (like sharing a little secret) but in doing so, these moments became difficult to hear and got a bit annoying.

Interesting thinking on geekness

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Did not like the leftist ideas introduced subtetly. I did not need to hear about the authors ideas about vaccines, especially now that more info has surfaced about the issues of the covid vaccines.

Some good ideas are presented

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