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Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

vox.com

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Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#11

Post by pavel_lishin »

isx726552 wrote: post #8
swatcoder wrote: post #4

Example #732453111 of how the 2000's-era dreams of technology-enabled infinite scaling were misguided and potentially damning for the Internet. Turns out scammers and spammers can technologically scale their side too, and can even do so in a way that the host profits from so that the host is disincentivized from doing anything about it until it's already gone too far. Now everything is flooded with noise and supporte…

This is why gatekeepers are still a good thing, and now the gatekeepers are themselves somewhat democratized. Lots of people now have their favorite YouTuber / Podcaster / etc. and get book recommendations from them. And there is now a much bigger selection of gatekeepers to choose from given the variety of content on those platforms. It’s not perfect, but overall it is an improvement in many ways. Now yes I would ag…

I don't think that "gatekeeper" is the correct term for what you're describing. Isn't it closer to "influencer", or "taste-maker"?

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#12

Post by swatcoder »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #11
isx726552 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why gatekeepers are still a good thing, and now the gatekeepers are themselves somewhat democratized. Lots of people now have their favorite YouTuber / Podcaster / etc. and get book recommendations from them. And there is now a much bigger selection of gatekeepers to choose from given the variety of content on those platforms. It’s not perfect, but overall it is an improvement in many ways. Now yes I would ag…

I don't think that "gatekeeper" is the correct term for what you're describing. Isn't it closer to "influencer", or "taste-maker"?

Curator. But otherwise, they're right. Curation and informal trust networks are the only way out.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#13

Post by ori_b »

MR4D wrote: post #7
swatcoder wrote: post #4

Example #732453111 of how the 2000's-era dreams of technology-enabled infinite scaling were misguided and potentially damning for the Internet. Turns out scammers and spammers can technologically scale their side too, and can even do so in a way that the host profits from so that the host is disincentivized from doing anything about it until it's already gone too far. Now everything is flooded with noise and supporte…

Clearly we didn't think this through back then. It should have been obvious to us that it is easier to create noise than it is to create signal. The idyllic dream of a free internet with long tails would be replaced with a steadily worsening signal to noise ratio. We cheered on when Google supplanted Yahoo! because the computers were better at curating than humans. Man, we clearly sucked at choosing the right path. D…

*looks nervously at the AI revolution*

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#14

Post by jtotheh »

whartung wrote: post #9
webwielder2 wrote: post #6

Stick to checking out books from your library / Libby. You'll save money and might end up making discoveries you otherwise wouldn't.

At my library you can check out sewing machines and power tools as well. And CA libraries have access to courses on Coursera.

My local library gives access to O'Reilly Safari. You have to click around a bit more than if you had a full price account but I think it's a great resource.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#17

Post by outofpaper »

This Vox article feels almost as clickbate and turn key as its subject material. It's filled with links upon links, not to sources but to other vox articles and vox search results. It's like reading in a library only to realize, as you go for another book, that you are in a carnival mirror maze!

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#18

Post by layman51 »

outofpaper wrote: post #17

This Vox article feels almost as clickbate and turn key as its subject material. It's filled with links upon links, not to sources but to other vox articles and vox search results. It's like reading in a library only to realize, as you go for another book, that you are in a carnival mirror maze!

Agreed. I was surprised to see a link in that article to a long, ranty Reddit post when they refer to what “the rumors on Reddit say.”

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#19

Post by al_borland »

isx726552 wrote: post #8
swatcoder wrote: post #4

Example #732453111 of how the 2000's-era dreams of technology-enabled infinite scaling were misguided and potentially damning for the Internet. Turns out scammers and spammers can technologically scale their side too, and can even do so in a way that the host profits from so that the host is disincentivized from doing anything about it until it's already gone too far. Now everything is flooded with noise and supporte…

This is why gatekeepers are still a good thing, and now the gatekeepers are themselves somewhat democratized. Lots of people now have their favorite YouTuber / Podcaster / etc. and get book recommendations from them. And there is now a much bigger selection of gatekeepers to choose from given the variety of content on those platforms. It’s not perfect, but overall it is an improvement in many ways. Now yes I would ag…

I’ve been trying to divest from Amazon as a source for products, and am looking to use more traditional stores to curate my options. They have buyers that vet stuff to some degree, and if the product is bad, they’ll take it back. If enough people think it’s bad, they’ll stop selling it.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#20

Post by bitwize »

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512600

In this post I opined that software engineering is akin to chemical engineering: the goal is a process to churn out software at massive scale much like chemical engineers find ways to produce chemicals by the kilolitre. In the software case this comes at the expense of grace, finesse, and craftsmanship, and I suggested another analogy to being a writer vs. a "literature engineer".

This... is exactly what I meant by "literature engineering".

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