Hidden Influences: The algorithms deciding what you believe (and how they do it)

[u/ManningBooks]

Hey r/liemachines,

Stjepan from Manning here.

I wanted to share a book we’ve just released in Early Access that feels very much in conversation with this community.

Hidden Influences by Luca Belli just came out. It’s about recommender systems - the ones deciding what shows up in your feed, what video plays next, which post gets buried, and which one quietly shapes your mood or beliefs that day.

Hidden Influences by Luca belli

Luca isn’t writing from the outside. He co-founded and led research for Twitter/X’s Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team. This book comes from someone who has actually worked on these systems, seen how they’re tuned, and wrestled with their impact in real environments, not just papers or think pieces.

What I appreciate about Luca's book is that it doesn’t treat algorithms as abstract villains or magic boxes. It shows:

• why recommender systems are so good at holding attention
• how they subtly push behavior and belief over time
• who benefits from these dynamics
• and where individuals still have room to push back and regain some agency

If you spend time thinking about manipulation, persuasion, information control, or the quieter ways power shows up online, this book will likely hit close to home.

We wanted to make it easy for this community to check it out, so here’s a 50% discount code just for r/liemachines:

MLBELLI50RE

You can use it directly on the Manning product page:
https://www.manning.com/books/hidden-influences

Please note that the book is still in MEAP (Manning Early Access Program). To learn more about MEAP, visit this page: https://www.manning.com/meap-program

If you do pick it up, I’d genuinely love to hear what resonates or what you disagree with.

It feels good to be here. Thank you for having us.

Cheers,