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Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

wandering.shop

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Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#161

Post by ghaff »

Kye wrote: post #147
Hasu wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Domain experts get the most out of it. The average person really can't use it well. This is the exact opposite of what research has shown so far. Top performers show productivity _decreases_ with LLM assistance, lower performers and less experienced users show a modest improvement. [0] [0] https://www.nber.org/papers/w31161

LLM output reminds me of the essays I had to write in college. They tick all the boxes in a curriculum and demonstrate a basic grasp on syntax, but they're hot garbage. Your first encounter with an editor as a professional or advanced hobbyist burns that away and reveals the foundation of your true form as a writer. LLMs are in desperate need of something that bridges that gap if they're to do anything more than help…

As an often writer, what I find LLMs useful for is creating an editable basis for subtopics/intro/explanatory text for something I'm reasonably familiar with and could write certainly with the help of some Googling around but might take me an hour between various distractions. It doesn't really work to structure an article for me or to create novel explanations/insights from e.g. data. But it does a decent job a lot of the time with respect to various necessary fleshing out.

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#162

Post by ilamont »

zillanovikov wrote: post #110

Zilla here (one of the Sad Bastard Cookbook authors). Thanks so much for your support ... I'm lowkey dropping "front page of Hacker News" when I talk to Amazon Service reps now, in the vague hope they have any power to actually help me. I think I've reached at least one real person, but in the days of AI voice chat, who can tell? Many of you asked why we use Amazon as the exclusive printer/distributor of the print ed…

Indie publisher here. Sorry to hear about this. Among the numerous frustrations that publishers and sellers report when dealing with Amazon, automated lockouts are near the top of the list. Inability to get a clear explanation or knowledgeable human support are close behind.

I always tell other publishers that Amazon's seller tech is like a rickety roller coaster with lots of kludged together components - built to go fast, but with lots of loose bits that rattle and sometimes cause the system to fail. Technology glitches, bad UI design, poor communication, and complex policy requirements lead to a huge support burden. Even if you can get a good Amazon support agent, they are not always able to diagnose certain problems, let alone provide a fix.

The parts of the company facing small publishers and third-party sellers is extremely siloed, which makes things even worse for sellers trying to get through complex issues touching multiple services. Reporting something like "I can't get Amazon Advertising to connect with my KDP account" can lead to runarounds that require multiple tickets or are never solved.

Regarding distribution: I don't use a distributor owing to the lead time required and the huge commissions involved, but a few I know work with IPG (https://www.ipgbook.com/). If you have a track record of sales, that can open the door to distribution and potentially help get through the Amazon problems you are experiencing as they have direct contacts with back-end Amazon staff.

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#163

Post by riedel »

javawizard wrote: post #50
riedel wrote: post #6

Just checked, interestingly it is still available for on demand order via other channels. Wonder if they still print it and only delist on their own frontend [0]. Maybe it is a bit of compensation if they profit from the Streisand effect. Regarding Amazon I find it funny that they actually engage quite a few people e.g. for tech support of end users. I think they know where to optimize.. [0] https://www.thalia.de/sho…

> interestingly it is still available for on demand order via other channels Where, if you don't mind my asking? This would make an excellent birthday gift for a good friend and I'd prefer to get her the print edition, but a quick search is failing to turn up anywhere that offers an actual hardcopy besides Amazon.

This was just a random German online book seller that are connected to a major distribution system. I don't know how it is elsewhere in the world, we in Germany have just a fe major distributors. I remember when publishing my PhD thesis I could chose if I wanted a ISBN and allow global distribution, when self publishing on Amazon (was much cheaper than any other options that required my to buy a batch). Actually small publishers have been living a lot of PhD theses in Germany, but nowadays electronic publication is allowed and not everyone has boxes of their manuscript in the basement as it used to be.

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#164

Post by ghaff »

lacrimacida wrote: post #102
reaperducer wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was up early one day getting coffee, and saw that one of the book stores in my neighborhood had a line of about 30 people of all ages outside waiting for it to open. I figured it was an event, and had nothing else to do, so I got in line, too. When the doors opened, they all scattered to different parts of the store. So, no author signing or music release. Just people who like books.

Im glad you had a great experience in the bookstore. Unfortunately many bookstores had to close down because of giants like Amazon. Some will stay open but much fewer than before as it becomes a niche rather than a widespread phenomena. I fondly remember spending lots of time in bookstores in the 2000s, it was my favorite pasttime. The experience of browsing books in a bookstore cannot be and will never be produced b…

>Unfortunately many bookstores had to close down because of giants like Amazon.

At least around where I live, this wasn't a single-step process. What happened was that big bookstores (both chains and local) started pushing out the mom and pop indies. And then they themselves complained as Amazon in particular ate their lunch.

I really did like going into town to do various shopping, in particular bookstore (new and used) browsing, once or twice a month. On the other hand, I can't say I hate instant ebook delivery or a physical copy in a day or two if that's what I want for some reason.

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#165

Post by ghaff »

philistine wrote: post #91
felurx wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is and afaik always has been available for free

For years I made book versions of the articles on my website. When came time to make the third volume, Amazon threw a massive fit that my books were reusing content! I ended up abandoning their bookmaking service for Lulu. My books are still for sale on Amazon, but I’m not letting them do anything with the printing.

I ran into this with my first book on Amazon maybe a decade ago. I reused/refined a lot of my blog content as well as some material I published elsewhere. But I sent a bunch of links to show that it was my byline and didn't have any issue going forward.

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#166

Post by wojciii »

rolph wrote: post #154
WolfeReader wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cut out the words "Russian propaganda" and the post you're replying to makes perfect sense.

i think its an attempt at ad hoc adjectivism. perjorative yes, maybe vaguely humourous. Russian propaganda, isnt exactly the most thought out attempt toward manipulating people. it attempts to muddy the waters, and make everything look like a ridiculous choice.

Russian propaganda is currently the most stupid thing that I know of. I feel more and more stupid each time I read something on X written by Russians (official Kremlin stuff).

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#168

Post by OJFord »

> Amazon in all its wisdom has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook. They won't tell us why.

I mean.. I assume it's right there in the title?

Not that there isn't other stuff available with such words, but there's not much, and the bar/automation might be higher for self-published or other 'indie' stuff? (If anyone's interested in jars of 300 F's to give or not, by the way...)

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#169

Post by ao98 »

If your first thought was “what is The Sad Bastard Cookbook”, here’s an except (and yes, totally worth fighting for :)

“Life is hard. Some days are at the absolute limit of what we can manage. Some days are worse than that. Eating—picking a meal, making it, putting it into your facehole—can feel like an insurmountable challenge. We wrote this cookbook to share our coping strategies. It has recipes to make when you’ve worked a 16-hour day, when you can’t stop crying and you don’t know why, when you accidentally woke up an Eldritch abomination at the bottom of the ocean. But most of all, this cookbook exists to help Sad Bastards like us feel a little less alone at mealtimes.

The Sad Bastard Cookbook is funny, realistic, and kind. It’s vegetarian/vegan. It’s a community-built project. And the e-book is free. It’s hard to survive late capitalism and we want to help.”

Re: Amazon has taken down the Sad Bastard Cookbook

#170

Post by lupire »

Hasu wrote: post #143
wegfawefgawefg wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its totally the other way around actually. It looks blunt from afar, but when you use it on specific fiddly things, it does a great job. Domain experts get the most out of it. The average person really can't use it well. I do agree with you that output on non domain specific tasks does not stand up to scrutiny. However, I often have to remind people that gpt4, and chatgpt in particular are not really llm's fu…

> Domain experts get the most out of it. The average person really can't use it well. This is the exact opposite of what research has shown so far. Top performers show productivity _decreases_ with LLM assistance, lower performers and less experienced users show a modest improvement. [0] [0] https://www.nber.org/papers/w31161

You are oversimplified PP's vague language.

That paper shows that AI didn't help people who already had the knowledge that then AI had.

High skill Experts (not customer service reps) use AI to extend their knowledge, like using a new API.

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