the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle · Alberto Brandolini

Brandolini's law examples

Curated by · reviewed 2026-06-01

The energy needed to refute nonsense is an order of magnitude greater than to produce it. A lie travels while the correction is still putting its shoes on.

What is brandolini's law? Read the full idea →

5 examples of brandolini's law

  1. The viral false claim

    One sentence of misinformation takes seconds to post and hours of careful sourcing to debunk.

  2. The conspiracy thread

    A wild theory spawns ten more; each takes a paragraph to make and an essay to dismantle.

  3. The bad statistic

    A made-up number spreads everywhere; the nuanced real figure never catches up.

  4. Online arguments

    Answering every absurd point exhausts you, which is often the point of making them.

  5. The rumour at work

    A casual false aside ripples through the office while the truth needs a formal correction nobody reads.

How to spot it in yourself

You'll forget most of this by next week.

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