I spent 20 years inside the machine. Then I wrote a book about it.

My new book is finally here. Now we have a chance to get it in front of a much bigger audience.

Today is a big day.

After more than a year of working on it, months of talking about it, and probably more reminders to preorder than any of you ever wanted to hear, my new book Pay Attention is officially out.

First, I want to say thank you.

So many of you preordered the book, told friends and family about it, came to events, and sent incredibly kind messages over the last few months. The response has meant a lot to me. But now that release day is actually here, I have one more favor to ask.

If you’ve been planning to buy Pay Attention but haven’t yet, please consider getting it this week.

There’s a reason the timing matters, and I want to explain why.

Why I wrote this book

I’ve been doing this show since 2005, more than 20 years.

When I started, there was no YouTube as we know it today. There was no TikTok, Instagram or Twitter. Facebook was in its infancy and only available to college students.

The internal combustion engine had just been invented.

Okay, not that last one.

But I’ve had a front-row seat to an extraordinary transformation in how information reaches us, and importantly, I’ve participated in it.

Every day, my team and I make decisions about titles, thumbnails, clips, what goes on YouTube, what goes on Instagram, and what gets sent to our audiences on different platforms. Whether we like it or not, those decisions are influenced by what the platforms reward.

I’ve watched thoughtful, nuanced titles fail while something more provocative takes off. I’ve seen anger rewarded. I’ve seen certainty and confidence rewarded, even when they’re not backed up by evidence. And I’ve seen how quickly these incentives can push creators toward giving audiences more and more of what they already believe.

The uncomfortable reality is that this isn’t only a problem when bad actors deliberately spread misinformation.

It’s the system.

The platforms we use every day are incredibly good at figuring out what keeps us watching, clicking, scrolling and reacting. But what keeps our attention isn’t necessarily what’s true. It isn’t necessarily what’s useful. And it definitely isn’t necessarily what’s good for us.

That’s what Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain is about.

It’s about algorithms, outrage, misinformation, audience capture, artificial intelligence, thumbnails, recommendation engines, and the bizarre economics of the attention economy.

But there’s also a confessional aspect to the book. I’m not writing as someone standing outside this system pointing at everybody else and saying, “Look what these people have done.”

I’ve spent two decades inside it.

My livelihood depends, at least in part, on understanding what gets people to click. I know the kinds of titles that work. I know the thumbnails that work. I know what the algorithms tend to reward.

So part of the book is about pulling back the curtain and showing you what this system looks like from the creator side. I think understanding how this machine works has become essential to understanding media, politics and increasingly everyday life. And no, my solution isn’t to delete every app, throw your phone into a lake and go live in the woods.

I understand the appeal.

But we need to understand the environment we’re operating in if we’re going to have any chance of navigating it intelligently.

Why this week matters so much

Now comes the uncomfortable part where I ask you to buy my book.

More specifically, I’m asking you to buy it this week if you were already planning to get it eventually.

The first week after a book is released is incredibly important.

Preorders and first-week sales help determine whether bookstores continue stocking a book and order additional copies. They’re important to bestseller lists. And a strong launch can help a book get noticed by people who don’t already know the author or follow their work.

We recently got a pretty striking reminder of why that matters.

Ted Cruz’s latest book reached number one on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list. Ted Cruz is allowed to write books. People are allowed to buy them. That’s not my point.

My point is that there is an established ecosystem on the right for promoting books, media and political ideas. There is a documented history of Republican organizations spending significant amounts of money buying and distributing books by conservative political figures. That activity then turns into those political ideas reaching far past Ted Cruz’s own base.

Independent progressive media doesn’t have that same kind of infrastructure behind every book. What I have is you.

That’s why I’m asking. I don’t want Pay Attention to reach only people who already watch The David Pakman Show. I want someone who has never heard of me to see the book at a bookstore. I want someone browsing a bestseller list to wonder what it’s about. I want these ideas to reach people who haven’t spent years thinking about algorithms, audience capture and the attention economy.

For that to happen, we need momentum.

And this first week is our best opportunity to create it.

So if you’ve been thinking about buying Pay Attention, and you were going to get it eventually anyway, I’m asking you to do me one favor:

Get it this week.

You can order your copy online at davidpakman.com/attention

The book is also available at Barnes & Noble bookstores. If you prefer to support your local bookstore but they don’t have it in stock, you can ask them to order it for you.

And seriously, thank you

I want to end where I started.

Thank you.

You’ve preordered the book. You’ve shared it with friends and family. You’ve come to events. You’ve become members. You’ve subscribed, watched and listened.

When I think about where this show started more than 20 years ago, I never could have imagined what it would eventually become. There are effectively infinite things competing for your attention every single day.

Appropriately enough, that’s basically the subject of the book. So I’m both flattered and humbled that you continue choosing to spend some of that attention with me.

I don’t take it for granted.

I’m incredibly excited that Pay Attention is finally out. I hope you’ll read it. I hope you’ll enjoy it. And I hope it changes or informs the way you look at the media environment we’re all living in.

You can get your copy now at davidpakman.com/attention.

And seriously, thank you.

—David