Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

tim.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 513 posts

Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

#111

Post by jeffbee »

vova_hn2 wrote: post #13

> How-to YouTube videos. Why scrub through a 24-minute video to find the 40 seconds you need, when an AI can watch it for you and hand you the steps? Why make a 24-minute Youtube video instead of an article with proper navigation? This is slightly off-topic, but this is a pet-peeve of mine. I believe that for most practical purposes hypertext beats video: - you can Ctrl-F through text (well, now you sort of can searc…

Text is not cheaper to produce. Most people can type out a lot of drivel but something worth reading takes practice and talent to write.

Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

#112

Post by solid_fuel »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #109
chris_money202 wrote: post #61

Something not mentioned that links to both LLM training AND drop in book sales... Anna's Archive

I would be extremely surprised if piracy accounts for any serious dent in the sales of books.

The implication is that the self-help books were scraped from Anna's Archive to train the LLMs, thus the content in the books has been integrated into the LLM and may be regurgitated on command. With the content then being available straight from an LLM, there's no need to buy the books.

Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

#114

Post by shermantanktop »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #102
delichon wrote: post #32

Fiction books to follow soon? Will kids still sit down and read an assigned book when they can just prompt "generate a movie of Shelley's Frankenstein, faithful to the source, except as required by my_movie_preferences.md". Reading the text may become as rare as learning ancient Greek to read the Odyssey.

"Luke… I am your father." "…You're absolutely right!"

c'mon, spoiler alert, jeez

Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

#116

Post by gdhkgdhkvff »

an0malous wrote: post #101
__alexander wrote: post #50

Personally, I see the self-help industry dying because people are starting to realize that it’s just a network of individuals selling products, promoting each other’s products, and creating new avenues to sell more products. I refer to it as the “self-help mafia.” Tim Ferriss kind of created it.

> it’s just a network of individuals selling products, promoting each other’s products, and creating new avenues to sell more products I've got some bad news for you about the SaaS industry

Considering he named it “the Tim Ferris mafia” makes me think he’s fully aware of that.

Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

#117

Post by digitaltrees »

__alexander wrote: post #50

Personally, I see the self-help industry dying because people are starting to realize that it’s just a network of individuals selling products, promoting each other’s products, and creating new avenues to sell more products. I refer to it as the “self-help mafia.” Tim Ferriss kind of created it.

Hard disagree. I have read lots of books, participated in events and training seminars and had profound results in my life. My marriage is better because of what I learned, I am a better father and leader because of what I learned. And the fact that people sell things as part of that growth journey is how they support their ability to share the lessons and techniques.

Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

#118

Post by JumpCrisscross »

digitaltrees wrote: post #117
__alexander wrote: post #50

Personally, I see the self-help industry dying because people are starting to realize that it’s just a network of individuals selling products, promoting each other’s products, and creating new avenues to sell more products. I refer to it as the “self-help mafia.” Tim Ferriss kind of created it.

Hard disagree. I have read lots of books, participated in events and training seminars and had profound results in my life. My marriage is better because of what I learned, I am a better father and leader because of what I learned. And the fact that people sell things as part of that growth journey is how they support their ability to share the lessons and techniques.

Can you share an easy-to-understand example for someone who is similarly highly sceptical of self-help products?

Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

#119

Post by vld_chk »

__alexander wrote: post #50

Personally, I see the self-help industry dying because people are starting to realize that it’s just a network of individuals selling products, promoting each other’s products, and creating new avenues to sell more products. I refer to it as the “self-help mafia.” Tim Ferriss kind of created it.

I do not have data, but from first glance, if anything, the overall demand for self-help and self-improvement increases Y/Y. We can correlate it with a sharp drop in alcohol sales, or raising revenues of therapy industry or fitness industry. YT and podcasts still looming too.

But the form of books … Yes, by some reason it collapses. I personally attribute it not to “people realise those guys are salesmen”, but with the fact that none of really good ideas were produced by such books for a while. Now anyone who really has a new angle or new idea to say — they go straight to YT/podcasts, bypassing writing a book altogether. Because of this, me personally, when I check bookshelves, do not see any really new or interesting idea published in the field.

Post reply on HN