[2] Having a lack of friends growing up, and from being what he has called "socially awkward" and a bit of a math and English geek, McAfee was drawn to computers.

[3] McAfee received his doctorate from Harvard Business School and completed two bachelors and two masters of science degrees at MIT.

[6] McAfee's first book, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges, brings together case studies and examples with key concepts from economics, sociology, computer science, consumer psychology, and management studies of how leading organizations are incorporating the web's novel tools and philosophies.

[7][8] His second book, Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy, co-authored with Erik Brynjolfsson, brings together a range of data, examples, and research to show that the average US worker is being left behind by advances in technology.

[9][10] In September 2014, he co-authored the book Leading Digital – Turning Technology into Business Transformation, with George Westermann (MIT) and Didier Bonnet (Capgemini Consulting).