Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places that Bring People Together

An Adam Grant Summer Reading Pick 2024

Do we still need physical places like grocery stores, restaurants, and office buildings? Or will the “Replacement Economy” led by the tech titans and retail giants wipe out these venues in their rapid ascent to unicorn status?

What about museums, universities, and performing arts venues? Considering the power of technology today, can’t we replace these relics with faster, cheaper, and more efficient online tools, apps, and AI? 

Through engaging storytelling, human behavior insights, and proven design techniques, Kevin Kelley—an attention architect and cofounder of Shook Kelley, a strategic design firm that pioneered the field of “convening”—unfolds why physical places are essential to civil society, business, and community. 

In these pages, he reveals what it takes for brick-and-mortar establishments to attract an audience and maintain a competitive edge in our increasingly digital world, whether you’re a:

• Retail leader or institutional manager trying to attract people to your offering while keeping the disruptors at bay
• Student of design who values social facilitation over object-oriented design
• Concerned citizen worried about the loss of community and civility

Irreplaceable offers a welcomed antidote to the anti-human digital future crushing our main streets and infiltrating every corner of our lives. It provides a comprehensive roadmap for creating human experiences that have the power to convene and bring friends, neighbors, and strangers together in prosocial environments in ways the digital replacements can’t replicate.