This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends by Nicole Perlrothby Nicole Perlroth
Shares rank 129 of 152 nonfiction books by recommenders
Recommended as a well-researched history of the cyberweapons and exploit market from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. One commenter who had not read it disputed a claim the author makes about NSA stockpiling web bugs.
Recommended as a well-researched history of the cyberweapons and exploit market from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. One commenter who had not read it disputed a claim the author makes about NSA stockpiling web bugs.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 2
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 2 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Detailed history of exploit market
“it's about the history of cyberweapons it does a very good job detailing the late 90s to early 2010s exploit market”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “We pwned X, Vercel, Cursor, and Discord through a supply-chain attack” Good background on cyberweapons
“should probably read some of the published books about them, like "This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends"”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Zero-day CSS: CVE-2026-2441 exists in the wild”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Disputed claim about NSA stockpiling
“I haven't read her book, am myself somewhat read in to the background here, and if she's claiming NSA was stockpiling serverside web bugs, I do not believe her.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “We pwned X, Vercel, Cursor, and Discord through a supply-chain attack”
Other nonfiction books people recommend
The four most recommended other nonfiction books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Cuckoo's Eggby Cliff Stoll | 40 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Amusing Ourselves to Deathby Neil Postman | 36 | 0 | 100% | 9 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| The Anxious Generationby Jonathan Haidt | 24 | 12 | 67% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Bullshit Jobsby David Graeber | 20 | 12 | 63% | 8 | — | — |
| This Is How They Tell Me the World Endsby Nicole PerlrothThis page | 2 | 1 | 67% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“should probably read some of the published books about them, like "This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends"”
“I haven't read her book, am myself somewhat read in to the background here, and if she's claiming NSA was stockpiling serverside web bugs, I do not believe her.”
“it's about the history of cyberweapons it does a very good job detailing the late 90s to early 2010s exploit market”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.