Drew Halstead / Author information
Meet the author.
Explore the books.
A reference for readers, interviewers, reviewers, booksellers, and book clubs.
Short author biography
Drew Halstead writes about the systems that shape how people are judged, influenced, and treated. His books follow the assumptions and incentives behind outcomes that are too often blamed on individuals.
Drew Halstead is the author of The Defect Detector and They Get Rich. You Get Played.. Read the full author biography.
The Defect Detector
Subtitle: Why Normal Is the Wrong Measuring Stick
A mind can find the defect and still be judged by the wrong standard. Drew Halstead examines what happens when schools, workplaces, research, and advocacy measure conformity before they measure function.
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They Get Rich. You Get Played.
Subtitle: How Companies Manufacture Reality, Manipulate Your Choices, and Profit from Your Trust
An hour lost to scrolling. A crisis staged to keep you watching. A perfect life performed for an audience. Drew Halstead examines how businesses turn attention, emotion, and trust into profit, and how to recognize when your goal is being replaced by someone else's.
Book details and purchase options · View the book cover
Questions for interviews and reading groups
- When does a preference for how someone communicates become a judgment of their competence?
- What changes when autistic people help define the questions and standards?
- How do business incentives shape attention, trust, and online choices?
- How can readers distinguish their own goals from the goals built into an experience?
- What connects finding a recurring system failure with recognizing manipulation?
Media, rights, and reader inquiries
For interviews, review-copy requests, reproduction permissions, or book-club inquiries, contact Drew Halstead. Include the book title, your publication or group, and any timing requirements. Sending an inquiry does not subscribe you to announcements.
Use the author name and book titles exactly as shown. Current formats, prices, and availability are determined by the retailer. This page does not promise a review copy or an interview.