Trust Me, I'm Lying
Confessions of a Media Manipulator
by Ryan Holiday · first published 2012
74% recommend24% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Insider account of media manipulation: how blogs chase clicks, how fake grassroots buzz and planted stories spread, and how ad-driven incentives reward outrage. Suits skeptical news readers and anyone seeking press.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
You've seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don't know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me. I'm a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs-as much as any one person can. In today's culture... 1) Blogs like Gawker, Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post drive the media agenda. 2) Bloggers are slaves to mone
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…been exposed to, the more reasonable you find outrageous claims. Even if you know that the ones that you have seen were all wrong. For an in depth treatment of the underlying issues, I highly recommend Trust Me, I'm Lying.
on “Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation” ↗…news, like a huge leap forward in cancer research, is even more viral. But unfortunately those happen much more rarely up than someone saying something stupid and getting lambasted. Ryan Holiday's book "Trust me I'm lying" also really opened my eyes to how a lot of this stuff works.
on “Too many people have peed in the pool” ↗…now and again. Howard Roark is one of my favorite characters and I aspire to be more like him. Unfortunately, to date, I think I'm closer to Gail Wynand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead Trust Me, I'm Lying - Ryan Holiday. How one man manipulated a variety of media outlets to gain free PR for his clients. Some of these tactics may seem (and probably are) underhanded, perhaps even downright unethical.…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012” ↗If you're into this kind of thing, I enjoyed reading "Trust Me I'm Lying" by Ryan Holiday.
on “How To Go Viral By Using Fake Reddit Likes” ↗Ryan Holiday has an entire chapter (Chapter 12) on it in his book, Trust Me I'm Lying: Confessions of A Media Manipulator. His point is that being wrong can actually have positive consequences for a blogger, since it allows them to get paid twice for the same story. First, they publish…
on “Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong” ↗…that people would read it after seeing the headline, and get agitated enough to share it. Remark that this is not the fault of the journalists, but just how that whole system works. You should read "Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator" by Ryan Holiday, and see how fragile that whole system is. And because of its fragility, can be easily manipulated on top of it. If you want to get informed, either…
on “Stop Reading News (2013)” ↗…is profitable. Most of the outrage I’ve seen in the online world – I would guess 80% – someone’s faking it for profit.” A good book that opened my eyes up to the phenomenon of manufactured outrage is Trust Me I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday.
on “Craig Newmark: a survivor from the era of internet optimism” ↗…and getting media attention is good. I just wanted to share some of the obvious stuff that jumped to mind immediately. You saying that reminds me of another resource of interest: Ryan Holiday's book Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator.[1] There's some interesting stuff in there about manipulating the media. You could almost think of it as "black hat PR". [1]: http://trustmeimlying.com/
on “Networks give you an unfair access to success” ↗…judging from Ryan's usual tactics, Chris wrote this list simply to push Ryan's book, which he cleverly included alongside clear classics like The Lean Startup, In The Plex, and The Innovator's Dilemma. Trust Me, I'm Lying just might wind up as a classic itself! OK, I know it's controversial, as is the author, and I get why. But there's some solid stuff in that book. I learned a lot from reading it, and I think there's…
on “A Startup Reading List” ↗…Warfare - Al Ries The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne Trust Me, I'm Lying - Confessions of a Media Manipulator - Ryan Holiday Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore If this is a B2B play, I'd read Steve Blank's The Four Steps to the Epiphany first though. Otherwise, I'd suggest…
on “Ask HN: How can a non-technical co-founder add value?” ↗If you really think this is such a ridiculous idea, I suggest you read Ryan Holiday's "Trust Me, I'm Lying".
on “Spotify Just Got Real Creepy with the Data It Collects on You” ↗It's amazing how much Trust Me, I'm Lying explains 90% of what you see shared on social networks these days. A great book, and still really relevant.
on “Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation” ↗…getting people riled up can unfortunately be profitable. This is similar to clickbait, sensationalist journalism when you have ad-supported news in comparison to subscription-supported. Ryan Holiday's Trust Me I'm Lying includes a very insightful section on this topic. I think it's less what people want than what they react to. O fabled homo economicus.
on “The forces that drove this election’s media failure are likely to get worse” ↗The author of this article, Ryan Holiday, is the author of Trust Me, I'm Lying[1], a fascinating book which goes into detail about the Tucker Max marketing campaign mentioned in the article, plus a lot of other scummy growth hacking stuff. It's not something to admire, per se,…
on “I Helped Create the Milo Trolling Playbook” ↗Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holliday Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion I read both a couple years ago and was fascinated (and annoyed) by how many of the little tricks and tactics I recognized in sales, in the news,…
on “Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?” ↗