Do not race to judgment

Races are won in the braking zone.

So are decisions. Everyone else is flat out on the hype. Twice a week we take one claim everybody is repeating, brake hard, and score it against its own source.

Get every verdict, free:
Thousands of readersTuesdays & Thursdays, 1:00 PM CentralFree. Unsubscribe anytime

You will get the next scored claim on Tuesday. One email, one claim, no pitch, and nobody sells your address.

Holds upAll hype
53
HALF TRUE
HYPE INDEX · 0 TO 100
“95% of enterprise AI pilots fail.” The research is real. The number is real. What people do with it is not.
Live trace · hype vs evidence the gap is the story
5
claims scored
5
scoring components
2x
every week
31
sources linked
Verdictstated before the argument
Methodpublished with every score
Calldated and graded in public
The Record

Nothing gets quietly deleted

Every claim we score stays here with its verdict, its component scores, and the date its call resolves. Held or missed, it does not come down.

ClaimVerdictIndexCall resolves
Security keys stop 100% of phishing.
August 6, 2026 scheduled
Half True 43 January 2027
There are 4.8 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs worldwide.
August 4, 2026 scheduled
Overstated 76 January 2027
There is a plastic spoon's worth of microplastic in your brain, and it is causing dementia.
July 30, 2026 scheduled
Half True 53 January 2027
Superhero movies are dead.
July 28, 2026 scheduled
Half True 50 January 2027
95% of enterprise AI pilots fail.
July 21, 2026
Half True 53 July 2027

marks a score with a component that was formally challenged and corrected. Challenge one yourself.

Higher on the Index means more distance between what the evidence supports and how the claim is used. How it is scored.

How it works

The anatomy of an Index score

Same skeleton every edition. New claim each time. Built to hold up when someone checks it. The verdict and the score read in thirty seconds. The reasoning underneath runs 3 to 4 minutes, and every edition prints its own word count.

1

The claim

One statement everybody is repeating, quoted exactly, with the source attached.

2

The verdict and the score

A named verdict and a number from zero to one hundred, stated before any argument.

3

The five components

Source quality, sample and method, independence, replication, and drift. Each scored and published.

4

What holds up

The part of the research worth acting on, separated from the headline that traveled.

5

The call

A dated prediction with stated resolution criteria. It goes on the record whether it lands or misses.

6

What to do with it

Three things worth doing with what you just read.

Why this exists

Bad numbers travel in a slipstream.

A study says something narrow. An article repeats it. A post repeats the article. A headline repeats the post. Each one tows the next along, and none of them goes back to the source.

By the time it reaches you, nobody repeating it can say where it started.

We go back to the source.

Who scores it

Mark Lynd

Five-time CEO, CIO, and CISO. CISSP, plus the ISSAP architecture and ISSMP management concentrations from ISC2. Thirty years on the receiving end of these numbers, and thirty years of watching them arrive with the caveats already missing.

Every verdict carries his name. No edition is sponsored and none of them sell anything. How we handle our own conflicts · marklynd.com

CISSPISSAPISSMP5x CEO / CIO / CISO
Straight answers

Questions people actually ask

01What is The Hype Index?

The Hype Index is a newsletter that scores one loud public claim per edition from 0 to 100, where a higher score means more distance between what the evidence supports and how the claim is being used. Claims come from AI, security, business, money, science, health, culture and sport. Every score is the sum of five published components worth 20 points each: source quality, sample and method, independence, replication, and drift.

02How often does The Hype Index publish?

Twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday at 1:00 PM Central. One scored claim per edition, with the verdict, the component breakdown, and a dated call.

03Is it free?

Yes. Every edition is free, and no scored claim is ever sponsored.

04Who is it for?

Anyone who gets handed a number and has to decide whether to believe it. You do not need a job title, a science degree, or a finance background. If a statistic is being repeated at you, this is for you.

05Who publishes The Hype Index?

Boldly Reimagined, edited by Mark Lynd.

06What happened to Hype Check Now and Hype Check Live?

Both consolidated into The Hype Index. The complete back catalogue of 226 editions is preserved at /archive/, and every old page redirects here. Nothing was deleted.

07Does a high score mean a claim is false?

No. A claim can rest on solid research and still score high because it is being used far outside what it measured. That is the difference between the Overstated verdict and the Unsupported one.

Get every verdict

Two editions a week. One scored claim each.

Tuesday and Thursday at 1:00 PM Central. Every call is dated and graded in public, including the ones we get wrong.

Thousands of readersFree foreverUnsubscribe anytime

One email, one scored claim, no pitch. We never sell or share your address.