The Man Who Hacked the World

A Ghostwriter’s Descent into Madness with John McAfee

By: Alex Cody Foster

Narrated by: Buck Groat

Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

After parting ways with the eponymous McAfee Antivirus software company in 1994, John McAfee embarked on innumerable business, political, and criminal enterprises. From investing in cybersecurity and cryptocurrency to accusations of murdering his neighbor in Belize to making two unsuccessful bids for President of the United States—the latter attempt done in exile following a federal indictment—this larger-than-life man nurtured a rakish public profile while evading law enforcement for his involvement with drugs, weapons, and murder. For six months, Alex Cody Foster—hired as McAfee’s ghostwriter—traveled with McAfee across America and Europe, occasionally going on the run to evade purported killers and kidnappers. Foster tells the incomparable tale of how the two of them met, where their adventures took them, and what precipitated McAfee’s death.

©2022 Alex Cody Foster (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Absolutely worth it!

I was always curious to know what a ghostwriter's lifestyle is and what a story this one is! Also very cool to dig deeper in the Mcafee persona, crazy stories!

Think Krishnamurti & The Sinaloa Cartel have nothing in common? Think again

After reading this book you will rethink philosophy religion QAnon and Brock Pierce.
MacAfee, the man …. Genius or psychopath? You decide… this book is a must read for deep thinkers as well as deep pockets…crypto pockets that is.

Best Non-Fiction Book I Have Ever Read & Listened to

Yes I have a physical copy and still bought the audible version so I could listen to it while doing dishes or at the gym.

Easily worth owning twice and I was hooked before the end of the first page.

There are some serious wow moments that you think won’t be topped and yet, you are wrong time and time again.

So glad that Alex is writing for himself and not ghostwriting. His name deserves to be known. Alex and John have both had exceptionally interesting lives and I look forward to seeing what is to come.

One of the best books

This was definately one of the best books I've hears in a long time

Fascinating, into the mind of madness or...?

it took me about 2 hours to to really get engaged with this audiobook but when it did begin to engage me it was like a rocket lifting lifting off full throttle gaining speed and more speed going further and further.

This is probably the most fascinating memoir style into the heart of darkness book I've ever read it is intense, vivid and well crafted.

I'm just going to stop there because I don't know how else to explain it but it is incredible.

When Reality Becomes the Stuff of Fiction

From the moment this story starts, Alex has you in his grip and doesn't let go till the outro plays.

A powerful entry into the mind of an individual both blessed and cursed with a most adventurous spirit.

What a ride. Thank you Alex, for sharing yourself and your experience with the world. I can honestly say I am now a fan of your work to say the least.

Excellent

Alex is a terrific writer!
I enjoyed this book tremendously.
Such a interesting life for them both!

Seems made up

2 hours in, just seems exaggerated at best, made up at worst. Not a fan

This is about Alex Cody Forter, not McAfee

The book from beginning to end is about Alex, not McAfee. Not only the first half of the book where you could argue his own life is relevant to understand the mutual attraction between him and John McAfee (and at the same time allow you to understand why he is such an unreliable teller of the McAfee story), but I even when he is focused on the McAfee story, it is all in comparison, almost in competition, to his own.

But the worst part is not him becoming the main character, the worst parts are #1 the incredible level of laziness in not fact-checking any of the information he is given (with lame excuses as to why he couldn’t call on the varios victims of McAfee’s crimes or other sources), and #2, how he justifies or tries to explain away the most evil acts, from rape to murder, all wrapped around some very boring and superficial philosophical mussings.

This is like telling Hitler’s story focusing on the fact that he was very nice to dogs or his desire for a “pure” race was not THAT bad, according to Alex, who are we to judge. GaFB

Unpleasant

The author clearly wanted to write his autobiography, but couldn't without appending the McAfee story. Not really the author's fault, just the nature of publishing I guess. But this is basically two different books. The author's autobiography before he met McAfee, then the book you expect about McAfee. Both are more unpleasant than anything.

I feel really bad for the author, he had terrible things happen in his life and not one person he could turn to for help. But it was so depressing, I eventually had to skip ahead. The subtitle is a bit misleading with "descend into madness" - the author's brain entirely broke well before he met McAfee. Not sure how he went from completely broken to rich author, like I said I had to skip ahead - his mental breakdown was hard to read, especially since not one person in his life would help him at all.

For the McAfee portion, I guess I was expecting some crazy misadventures and amusing antics. It is not funny or pleasant at all. If even 10% of what is described is half true, Belize must be hell on earth. Despite this, McAfee is not a sympathetic character in the least. Everyone is either a complete victim or just a terrible person. The only exception is the author. He was very sympathetic, but I couldn't really relate at all. There was something just a little off, I couldn't figure it out. Until... there's this very contrived-feeling scene (everything up to this point is pretty unbelievable so who knows if it actually happened) where McAfee wants the author to come on the run with him, but first he must prove he is a bad person. (McAfee only associates with the scum of the earth, you see.) Despite this seemingly middle-school level friendship test, the author comes up with the most job-interview turn your weakness into a strength answer I can imagine. He gives a story of how he "cheated" on his girlfriend, who even I, who has zero tolerance for infidelity and is about as far from McAfee in personality as possible, found so lame as to be almost endearingly adorable. Yet somehow this (totally unverified) "cheating" story gained him complete trust from McAfee. And that's when I knew what it was - the author is a Gary Stu. He's too pure, too precious for this world, bad things happen to him and he has the most tragic story ever, but somehow he is still wildly successful and gets amazing opportunities and even villains trust him, even though he has no friends or family or any sort of support or love in this world... At that point it left the realm of nonfiction for me, and I really wasn't enjoying any of it, so I stopped reading.

My main takeaway from this book was to take Belize off my want-to-visit list.