Newstalk: Moncrieff

Mark Roeder, author of ‘Unnatural Selection: Why the Geeks Will Inherit the Earth’ joined Sean to talk about his book and to discuss this new age of man in our evolution

Click here to listen to the full interview on Newstalk

NPR Radio Interview (US)

In the last two decades, technological innovators have changed the way we live and interact with one another. This hour, we’ll talk about how Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and their contemporaries have gone from social outcasts to titans of industry with Mark Roeder, author of Unnatural Selection: Why the Geeks Will Inherit the Earth (Arcade Publishing).

Click here to listen to the full interview on KERA

La Stampa (Italy)

Il geek non sarà mai più considerato come un povero secchione, il suo destino è quello di sostituirsi all’antiquato modello del maschio Alpha.
In un futuro, che già stiamo lambendo, sarà proprio l’uomo “tecnocentrico” a stabilire i geni dominanti di una nuova fase nell’evoluzione umana.

Click here to read the full review on La Stampa

Article in Salon Magazine

During the nineteenth century in America, a “geek” was a carnival performer or wild man who would bite the head off a live chicken or snake—and swallow it. His job was to warm up the audience for the main show that followed. It drew on a similar act performed a century earlier by circuses in Austria-Hungary, where people called gecken—or “freaks”—were used as attention-getters. The word survives today in the Dutch language as gecken meaning “crazy.”

Click here to read the full article on Salon Magazine’s website

ABC Wide Bay

Mark Roeder talking with David Dowsett from ABC Wide Bay – Mornings Presenter.

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ABC Phillip Adams

Mark Roeder talking with Phillip Adams from ABC about Why momentum rules our world.

To listen to the interview, head over to the ABC website

Brisbane Writer’s Festival

Mark Roeder talking at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival on the ABC about Living Simply and Connecting Less.

To listen to the interview, head over to the ABC website

ABC 702 Adam Spencer

Mark Roeder talking with Adam Spencer from ABC 702 about Why geeks shall inherit the earth.

To listen to the interview, click here for the ABC 702 website

ABC Helen Shield

Mark Roeder talking with Helen Sheild from ABC about Why geeks shall inherit the earth.

To listen to the interview, head over to the ABC website

Open House FM Radio

Mark Roeder talking Open House FM Radio.

To listen to the interview, head over to the Hope 1032

Booktopia Interview

What is The Big Mo about?
It’s about the huge impact that momentum now has on our lives. For the first time in history, momentum operates on a global scale and exerts a powerful influence over economics, politics, the media, climate change and society. Momentum is the new Zeitgeist. This influence can be very destructive. For example, momentum – or Big Mo – was the real driver of the global financial crisis. This book sheds some light on this mysterious and powerful phenomenon.

Why is momentum so much more influential today, than say 20 years ago?
Because the world is now much more interconnected through communications and technology, which accelerates the speed at which events unfold and magnifies their impact. This generates a lot of momentum which makes us acutely vulnerable to crises such as financial meltdowns, geopolitical upheavals, and technological breakdowns. A problem in one part of the system also spreads more rapidly to other parts of the system. Everything affects everything else – which creates a multiplier effect.

What inspired you to write this book?
During the height of the financial crisis, I became frustrated that no one could explain to me what caused it. I was a senior executive at a global bank (UBS) with access to the best advice. But every expert had a different opinion. So I decided to conduct my own analysis. I soon came across some remarkable research by three London academics which suggested that momentum exerts a larger influence on financial markets than previously assumed. I discovered that this momentum effect extended way beyond the financial markets, and that its influence was increasing.

How does Big Mo affect other aspects of our lives?
Practically every dimension of lives today is affected by momentum. It’s the price we pay for living in such a highly interconnected, technologically dependent society. Consider the way the news media now works. Once a story gains traction – even if it is false – it soon develops so much self reinforcing momentum that it becomes difficult to challenge. This explains why, for example, it took the media so long to challenge the legitimacy of the second Iraq War, or to question the sustainability of the US housing boom before it crashed. Politics is another field that has succumbed to the Big Mo. Candidates will do whatever it takes to build ‘momentum’ for their campaign. It’s the same in business where senior executives have become obsessed with generating market momentum, in order to keep the value of their share options rising. So they think opportunistically rather than strategically. The higher echelons of business and government are increasingly occupied by people with a momentum-driven outlook. Such people are highly skilled at surfing the Big Mo regardless of the direction in which it is heading.

What was the most surprising thing you discovered about momentum?
The biggest surprise was that large, efficient organisations are more susceptible to the momentum effect than smaller, less efficient ones. This is because momentum feeds on an organisation’s internal efficiency to become self reinforcing – which can spiral out of control. This explains why, for example, it was the biggest and most sophisticated global banks that were most affected by the financial crisis rather than the smaller, less efficient banks that had not updated their computer systems for years. The global ‘megabanks’ generated so much Big Mo, that it also destabilised the entire financial system. It’s the same for other industries, and even economies. The more advanced and efficient they are, the more vulnerable they are to momentum. Efficiency and scale is not always a good thing. It can work against us.

Why should people read The Big Mo?
Because it will change the way they think about how the world works. It shows how easily we can become swept up in momentum without even realising it. To a very real extent, momentum rules our world today. It’s important that we know about this force that drives so much of human and organisational behaviour. Hopefully, readers will also find The Big Mo a fascinating and entertaining read.