Conspiracy

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In the tradition of Janet Malcolm s THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER and Robert Greene s THE 48 LAWS OF POWER, author Ryan Holiday examines the case that rocked the media world and the billionaire mastermind behind itIn 2007, a short blogpost on Valleywag, the Silicon Valley vertical of Gawker Media, outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay Thiel s sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn t consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a 140 million dollar judgment against Gawker, its bankruptcy and with Nick Denton, Gawker s CEO and founder, out of a job Only later would the world learn that Gawker s demise was not incidental it had been masterminded by Thiel.For years, Thiel had searched endlessly for a solution to what he d come to call the Gawker Problem When an unmarked envelope delivered an illegally recorded sex tape of Hogan with his best friend s wife, Gawker had seen the chance for millions of pageviews and to say the things that others were afraid to say Thiel saw their publication of the tape as the opportunity he was looking for He would come to pit Hogan against Gawker in a multi year proxy war through the Florida legal system, while Gawker remained confidently convinced they would prevail as they had over so many other lawsuit until it was too late The verdict would stun the world and so would Peter s ultimate unmasking as the man who had set it all in motion Why had he done this How had no one discovered it What would this mean for the First Amendment For privacy For culture In Holiday s masterful telling of this nearly unbelievable conspiracy, informed by interviews with all the key players, this case transcends the narrative of how one billionaire took down a media empire or the current state of the free press It s a study in power, strategy, and one of the most wildly ambitious and successful secret plots in recent memory.Some will cheer Gawker s destruction and others will lament it, but after reading these pages and seeing the access the author was given no one will deny that there is something ruthless and brilliant about Peter Thiel s shocking attempt to shake up the world. Best Read [ Conspiracy ] by [ Ryan Holiday ] – kino-fada.fr Great storytelling, unconvinced by the lessons I generally enjoy Ryan Holiday s writing It is engaging if occasionally repetitive in the tell them what you re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you ve told them style This book was evenof a page turner than his other books or than what I expected, and I found myself incredibly drawn to reading the next page and chapters even as the end was known from the very beginning.That said, I came away quite unconvinced by Holiday s th Great storytelling, unconvinced by the lessons I generally enjoy Ryan Holiday s writing It is engaging if occasionally repetitive in the tell them what you re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you ve told them style This book was evenof a page turner than his other books or than what I expected, and I found myself incredibly drawn to reading the next page and chapters even as the end was known from the very beginning.That said, I came away quite unconvinced by Holiday s thesis about conspiracies and nowhere near as sympathetic towards Thiel as he is As one online reviewer astutely pointed out, the tenuous connection to Gamergate is extremely troubling, and Holiday missed or deliberately ignored the chance to probe deeper into this My enemy s enemy is...Throwing my towel at 20% The premise and the story are incredible But I just cannot force myself to suffer any through the obnoxious writing to enjoy themI complain a lot about books and movies being overwritten, but Conspiracy is the first book in a very long time I wanted to re edit in book, with a marker and read again Because as long as he s staying on topic the conspiracy to sue Gawker out of business , Ryan Holiday s book is awesome He competently lays the foundation and tells you the story in just about as complete a fashion as you could hope for.But by the sixth or seventh reference to Machiavelli or the Second World War, the I complain a lot about books and movies being overwritten, but Conspiracy is the first book in a very long time I wanted to re edit in book, with a marker and read again Because as long as he s staying on topic the conspiracy to sue Gawker out of business , Ryan Holiday s book is awesome He competently lays the foundation and tells you the story in just about as complete a fashion as you could hope for.But by the sixth or seventh reference to Machiavelli or the Second World War, the Civil War, or War and Peace, or Eisenhower v McCarthy, or Caesar, or any one of a few dozen other things you very much get a feeling of, okay, Holiday reads And good for him But not everything needs to be cross referenced A story just needs to be told.By the end of the book I was sk...In 2007, a Gawker writer outed Peter Thiel as gay In 2016, after losing a 140 million lawsuit funded by Thiel, Gawker shut down Conspiracy is the story of how we got from A to B.Disclosure Gawker has tried to getthan one of my friends fired, so I didn t shed any tears when justice was served High fives may have been exchanged.The central thesis of Conspiracy is that we needconspiracies It s clear that nobody is willing to labor for nearly a decade in silence in order to achieve In 2007, a Gawker writer outed Peter Thiel as gay In 2016, after losing a 140 million lawsuit funded by Thiel, Gawker shut down Conspiracy is the story of how we got from A to B.Disclosure Gawker has tried to getthan one of my friends fired, so I didn t shed any tears when justice was served High fives may have been exchanged.The central thesis of Conspiracy is that we needconspiracies It s clear that nobody is willing to labor for nearly a decade in silence in order to achieve a goal The closest we have to that is stealth mode, or maybe grad school, but one is temporary and the other appears to be permanent.If you think of it in terms of an investment and every... Conspiracy is a not particularly concise showcase of Ryan Holiday s maturation as a writer His writing style here is eerily similar to Antonio Garcia Martinez in Chaos Monkeys, or, generally speaking, my own, whenever I want to flaunt that I am well read.It also tells one of the most compelling and mind boggling stories of the decade Yes, Holiday managed to get exclusive, intimate, access to Nick Denton the CEO of Gawker , Peter Thiel the billionaire that everyone hates now , and Hulk Hogan Conspiracy is a not particularly concise showcase of Ryan Holiday s maturation as a writer His writing style here is eerily similar to Antonio Garcia Martinez in Chaos Monkeys, or, generally speaking, my own, whenever I want to flaunt that I am well read.It also tells one of the most compelling and mind boggling stories of the decade Yes, Holiday managed to get exclusive, intimate, access to Nick Denton the CEO of Gawker , Peter Thiel the billionaire that everyone hates now , and Hulk Hogan Hulk Hogan The story has this type of complex awesomeness that is beyond descriptives difficult to sell to an outsider I like leaving the st...Ryan Holiday says this is the best book he s written I agree.This was farfascinating than I ever expected.The short version of the story In 2007, Gawker Media outed Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who founded PayPal Angered by this, Thiel embarked on what became a slow, patient campaign to destroy Gawker The instrument of his vengeance, improbably, was Terry Bollea, better known as former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who had launched a suit against Gawker for publishing a sex video of him banging his best friend s wife Backed by Thi This was farfascinating than I ever expected.The short version of the story In 2007, Gawker Media outed Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who founded PayPal Angered by this, Thiel embarked on what became a slow, patient campaign to destroy Gawker The instrument of his vengeance, improbably, was Terry Bollea, better known as former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who had launched a suit against Gawker for publishing a sex video of him banging his best friend s wife Backed by Thiel s deep pockets, the Bollea lawsuit eventually ended the Gawker empire, driving it and its owner, Nick Denton, into bankruptcy.That s the short version, but the long version turns out to be detailed, fascinating, and a far reaching epic story that touches on political biase...I ve enjoyed other books by Ryan Holiday I enjoy his stoic approach to things He s a fascinating young man with an interesting, if not worldly, misguided insight into how things work.This is his first bit of journalism He does a good job investigating and telling the story about a real, honest to goodness conspiracy.He leaves very few stones unturned and covers what happened very thoroughly.The problem with this book is at the very end, he suddenly turns it into an opinion piece on his belief I ve enjoyed other books by Ryan Holiday I enjoy his stoic approach to things He s a fascinating young man with an interesting, if not worldly, misguided insight into how things work.This is his first bit of journalism He does a good job investigating and telling the story about a real, honest to goodness conspiracy.He leaves very few stones unturned and covers what happened very thoroughly.The problem with this book is at the very end, he suddenly turns it into an opinion piece on his belief that the Trump presidency is a disaster and provesanda disaster every day that passes What ...An interesting yarn about an interesting case, even though Holiday does his best to make the book, like, really deep, man Holiday is big into Stoicism, and boy does that show Just about every chapter opens with a quote from Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Machiavelli, Lucretius, Sun Tzu, blah blah blah Basically, Holiday is trying to write a Deep Book filled with Deep Thoughts and spends pages and pages waxing rhapsodic about What Is Even A Conspiracy Why he d choose that angle is beyond me, since t An interesting yarn about an interesting case, even though Holiday does his best to make the book, like, really deep, man Holiday is big into Stoicism, and boy does that show Just about every chapter opens with a quote from Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Machiavelli, Lucretius, Sun Tzu, blah blah blah Basically, Holiday is trying to write a Deep Book filled with Deep Thoughts and spends pages and pages waxing rhapsodic about What Is Even A Conspiracy Why he d choose that angle is beyond me, since the subject matter here is interesting enough, and you could fill a book just focusing on the personalities, of, you know, the people involved Thiel, Denton, and Hogan are all fascinating characters, and you don t need to remind readers on every page that yes, you re a history buff, with random quote drops from Greek poets The ...I liked the book I think I would have liked ithad it focused on conspiracies in general and used the Gawker trial as one of many case studies Holiday references other conspiracies in history which could have been give...Interesting for sure but lacks depth also one can t find universal principles of conspiracies by examining one The book gives courage to those who conspire for the greater good that I really liked other than a few l...I ve read every book Ryan has published This one is different If you d put a billionaire VC, Some Machiavelli, Robert Greene strategy books, and a good law thriller into a shaker and shake long enough this book would come out The story is fascinating, conclusions a...Absorbing fascinating, one of those tales that s impossible to believe is a true story Ryan Holiday is so quotable throughout the entire book, little nuggets of wisdom on society, moral high ground obligation, conspiracy, power, history, perspective, decency, wealth, the media, the legal process, strategy, psychology, war I bookmarked a few of my favorites So much to learn from this book, I wish all nonfiction was written this way We used to throw bombs, now we throw tantrums or worse, Absorbing fascinating, one of those tales that s impossible to believe is a true story Ryan Holiday is so quotable throughout the entire book, little nuggets of wisdom on society, moral high ground obligation, conspiracy, power, history, perspective, decency, wealth, the media, the legal process, strategy, psychology, war I bookmarked a few of my favorites So much to learn from this book, I wish all nonfiction was written this way We used to throw bombs, now we throw tantrums or worse, tweets Perhaps we have too few conspiracies, not too many Too little scheming, rather than too much What would happen ifpeople took up plotting, coordinating how to eliminate what they believe are negative forces and obstacles, and tried to wield power in an attempt to change the world We could almost always useboldness, and less complacency Fights break out Conspiracies brew Cunning and re...

Conspiracy
  • 22 March 2018
  • Kindle Edition
  • 336 pages
  • Ryan Holiday
  • Conspiracy