Jump to content

The Seven Rules of Trust

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Seven Rules of Trust
First edition cover as published by Crown Currency
Author
LanguageEnglish
GenreBusiness
PublisherCrown Currency, Bloomsbury
Publication date
October 28, 2025
Websitesites.prh.com/the-seven-rules-of-trust

The Seven Rules of Trust‍[a] is a book by Jimmy Wales written with Dan Gardner[3] and published by Crown Currency and Bloomsbury on October 28, 2025. The book presents Wikipedia co-founder Wales's view on how to mend division in society through the building of trust in seven rules, which serve as subheadings in the book.

Background

[edit]

Jimmy Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in 2001.[4][5] Dan Gardner is a Canadian academic who previously wrote the 2008 book Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear[6] and co-authored the 2015 book Superforecasting with Philip E. Tetlock.[7]

Premise

[edit]

In The Seven Rules of Trust, Wales presents his view on how the trust-based model of Wikipedia can be applied to address the problem of polarization in the United States[4][5] or the world. For Wales, the solution to division in society lies in trust, for which he provides seven rules on how to build:[3][8]

  1. Make It Personal
  2. Be Positive About People
  3. Create a Clear Purpose
  4. Be Trusting
  5. Be Civil
  6. Be Independent
  7. Be Transparent

These rules serve as subheadings for each of the first seven chapters of the book.[9]

Publication

[edit]
Two participants at the NYC Wiknic talk to each other while holding early copies of the book, August 2025.

By April 2025, translation rights had been sold in 15 other territories, and the book was scheduled for release on October 28, 2025 by Crown Currency in the US and Bloomsbury in Commonwealth countries (excluding Canada).[10] Two days prior to publication, an excerpt was published in The Times,[11] and on the publication day October 28,[12] excerpts of the book were published as essays in the magazines Time[13] and Fortune.[14] A German translation by Ursula Held, Oliver Lingner, and Hans Freundl [wd] was published by Piper Verlag[15] at the end of the month.[16]

Media tour

[edit]

Wales embarked on a media tour to promote The Seven Rules of Trust.[17] In the lead-up to the book's release, he gave an interview with The New York Times where he discussed the book, the issue of culture war and how it has affected Wikipedia, and criticisms of the project.[4][18] Wales also talked about the book in interviews with The Guardian,[19] Radio New Zealand,[20] Big Think,[21] Alabama Public Radio,[22] BBC Science Focus,[23] and the Irish Independent.[24] While on CNN, Wales was questioned by Walter Isaacson about the Wikipedia article "Gaza genocide," which Wales himself criticized as "one of the worst Wikipedia entries I’ve seen in a very long time," leading him to intervene on the article's talk page.[25] During the podcast Jung & Naiv  [de], Wales abruptly stormed off the set after interviewer Tilo Jung pressed him about his claim of being Wikipedia's sole founder—only 48 seconds after the episode had started.[26][27]

Reception

[edit]

Critical

[edit]
Wales gives a presentation of the book at Wikimania 2025

The book was described by Andrew Hill of the Financial Times as reading "like a manifesto."[3] The Financial Times included The Seven Rules of Trust in its "Business books: What to read this month" list, although it described the final section of the book as "slightly rushed."[3] Kirkus Reviews commented that some of the rules provided in the book were not entirely original, but praised the book for its "invigorating plea for collaboration and respectful debate."[9] Similarly, Andrew Paul Wood of the New Zealand Listener described the message of the book as "common sense", boiling it down to the Golden Rule of treating others as one would want to be treated by them.[28]

Commercial

[edit]

The book was ranked 86th place on USA Today's top 150 bestseller list on November 5, 2025.[12]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The book is subtitled "A Blueprint for Building Things That Last" as published by Crown Currency[1] and "Why It Is Today's Most Essential Superpower" as published by Bloomsbury.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "The Seven Rules of Trust by Jimmy Wales: 9780593727461 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  2. ^ "The Seven Rules of Trust: Why It Is Today's Most Essential Superpower". Bloomsbury. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d Hill, Andrew (October 24, 2025). "'The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last', by Jimmy Wales with Dan Gardner". Financial Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2025. Retrieved October 25, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Thornton, William (October 21, 2025). "Alabama-born co-founder of Wikipedia has a new book coming out this month". AL.com. Retrieved October 23, 2025.
  5. ^ a b Deckmyn, Dominique (October 23, 2025). ""Geleid door leger van linkse activisten": 'Wokepedia' is het nieuwe doelwit van conservatief Amerika" ["Led by army of leftist activists": 'Wokepedia' is the new target of conservative America]. De Standaard (in Flemish). Archived from the original on October 24, 2025. Retrieved October 25, 2025.
  6. ^ Tulchinsky, Igor (November 11, 2024). "How AI Is Redefining Our Understanding of Risk | Opinion". Newsweek. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  7. ^ "Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner". FT Business book of the year award. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  8. ^ Grove, Elliot (November 8, 2025). "The Seven Rules of Trust (and Why Filmmakers Can't Survive Without Them)". Raindance Film Festival. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  9. ^ a b "Wikipedia's founder makes an invigorating plea for collaboration and respectful debate". Kirkus Reviews. October 28, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  10. ^ Spanoudi, Melina (April 8, 2025). "Bloomsbury to publish new book by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales". The Bookseller. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  11. ^ Wales, Jimmy (October 26, 2025). "Jimmy Wales: I started Wikipedia because my baby fell ill". The Times. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  12. ^ a b "USA TODAY's Best-selling Booklist". USA Today. November 5, 2025. Archived from the original on November 18, 2025. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
  13. ^ Wales, Jimmy (October 28, 2025). "Wikipedia's Foundation Was Built on Trust". Time. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  14. ^ Wales, Jimmy. "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales: Jeff Bezos was right to call off the Washington Post endorsement in 2024". Fortune. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  15. ^ Kreye, Andrian (November 17, 2025). ""Die meisten Menschen sind in Ordnung"". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on November 17, 2025. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  16. ^ "Wikipedia-Gründer widerspricht Musk: keine linke Übernahme". Die Presse (in Austrian German). November 14, 2025. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  17. ^ Novak, Matt (November 4, 2025). "Wikipedia Article on Gaza Genocide Locked Over Alleged Bias". Gizmodo. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  18. ^ Garcia-Navarro, Lulu (October 18, 2025). "The Culture Wars Came for Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales Is Staying the Course". The New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  19. ^ Shariatmadari, David (October 27, 2025). "'People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit': is Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  20. ^ "'I was very nervous at first' - how the founder of Wikipedia learnt to embrace trust". RNZ. October 25, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  21. ^ Hodgkinson, Mike (October 28, 2025). "Wikipedia visionary Jimmy Wales wants innovators to have fun. Seriously". Big Think. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  22. ^ "Huntsville creator of Wikipedia is out with his first book". Alabama Public Radio. October 27, 2025. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  23. ^ Howarth, Tom (October 28, 2025). "How AI could soon be used by Wikipedia, according to its founder". BBC Science Focus. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  24. ^ Weckler, Adrian (October 31, 2025). "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales: 'The EU is making some disastrous missteps over the regulation of speech'". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on October 31, 2025. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  25. ^ Roth, Emma (November 4, 2025). "Wikipedia co-founder joins editing conflict over the Gaza genocide page". The Verge. Retrieved November 13, 2025.
  26. ^ Chalk, Andy (November 14, 2025). "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales blows his top and hits da bricks 45 seconds into an interview, shouting 'It's a stupid question!' as he walks offstage". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  27. ^ Christian, Harrison (November 17, 2025). "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales storms out of interview after 'co-founder' question". News.com.au. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  28. ^ Wood, Andrew Paul (October 30, 2025). "Book of the Day: The Seven Rules of Trust: Why It Is Today's Most Essential Superpower by Jimmy Wales". New Zealand Listener. Archived from the original on November 1, 2025. Retrieved November 2, 2025.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Seven_Rules_of_Trust&oldid=1325647725"