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

131–140 of 513 posts

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

#131

Post by daytonix »

"Self-help" readers are probably moving from self-help books to llms because they give them the shallow "fix my life" and "get rich quick" answers they want at a faster rate. Now the redpillers have to think even less about why they are such losers.

Obviously this is mean but I do think "self-help" has been incredibly inflated by these people who think there are some sort of magic answers out there to solve everything about their life. And those people are now moving to short form redpill content and / or llms that gas them up.

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

#132

Post by chris_money202 »

jasonfarnon wrote: post #130
chris_money202 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was true, they wouldn't be getting sued and aggressively pursued for takedowns

" they wouldn't be getting sued and aggressively pursued for takedowns" I don't think so. That behavior only tells you the modest cost of sending takedown notices/threatening letters is less than the (supposed) lost revenue. Kids I know (I'm a teacher) don't seem at all aware of it when complaining about textbook costs and I kind of vaguely hint they look online for it--nothing like the popularity of napster.

To get the DOJ and FBI to move on on this takes a lot more than submitting paperwork, costs a lot more too.

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

#133

Post by itissid »

Still too narrow a take on what self help techniques are killable by ai. I also think self help as a bunch of life hacks and habits is precisely what’s wrong with the industry writ large. They are based on what sells in a capitalist system targeting the attention economy. Creating scarcity on supply side of attention(work longer) and demand side(addictive apps). Take Atomic Habits, one of the things it says is out of many is making the habit you want to form easy to do, e.g place sneakers and shorts next to your bed to make a habit to run in the morning. It presumes a lot about how exactly habits are actually internalized, retained and how one falls into or out of them. I’ve fallen in and out of such habits even after I did them for a while(months). Techniques are very ripe to disruption because people don’t quite understand or have time to understand or observe their own mental state, so hacks sell because you can do them(presumably) as a monkey would.

It’s not an electronic problem but an human first IRL interface problem. A shining example to the contrary is meditation practice like Vipassana. Saying you can kill that with AI is like saying “Gandalf is here and he explained to you the meaning of life and said now you don’t have to live or learn lessons anymore because you know I can always ask him”. Of course living the actual life is the whole point! It’s also why IRL experiences like classes and communities tend to work better when structured as lived experiences.

If this industry of self help books dies I won’t shed too many tears.

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

#134

Post by Fr0styMatt88 »

jasonfarnon wrote: post #128
digitaltrees wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"because of what I learned." Do these books/seminars actually teach you something new about being married or a father, that you didn't know before? Like what? I always figured they were more about coaching, persuasion, convincing. To the extent I've scanned them, I never saw any kind of new fact, definitely not about something like being married.

I mean I can see it. Books are just a way to transmit one’s thoughts and experiences to other people. So it’s no different to being exposed to someone with a different viewpoint. Common sense isn’t common or innate, it’s tribal knowledge.

There’s that XKCD about someone learning something new that was just thought to be something everyone knew.

Also you don’t know what you don’t know.

Agree though — coaching and persuasion are a huge part which is why I think a lot of these books seem ‘fluffy’ if all you’re wanting is a collection of facts.

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

#135

Post by r0s »

Almost zero readers buy a book based on the title or content alone. They buy Dr.Phil because they saw him on TV and know a bit about who he is. On the other end of the spectrum, there's people buying books because they respect and admire the author's other work.

AI can never touch the human interest angle of authors, the best it can do is hope to trick people temporarily, and that doesn't last long.

Ask yourself, how many "self-help" books are published by Anonymous?

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

#136

Post by apatry »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #118
digitaltrees wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Getting Things Done by David Allen gave me a framework to get out of the weeds when I am overwhelmed (usually once or twice a year when I stretch myself): build a to-do list that us complete enough to stop thinking about what you have to do, if a new task take less than 5 minutes just do it right away, and then prioritise the rest.

Deep Work by Cal Newport gave me a way to think about my time management: information work is not the same as a factory line where doing the same thing at similar productivity from 9 to 5 makes sense, and it is important to dedicate long stretch of quality time to be productive (vs busy).

There are no silver bullets, but learning what worked for a group of people, testing it for myself, adapting it, and using it as needed has been helpful to me.

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

#138

Post by Panzer04 »

vova_hn2 wrote: post #17

> What happens when 99% of the rigorously fact-checked media is behind a paywall? The short answer: people skip it and ask the AI. Perhaps there is a business opportunity for a "rigorously fact-checked" chatbot? You can test chatbot to see if it gives "correct" (according to the author's opinion) answers on a topic of your choice and fix errors through prompt engineering, RAG (or other "memory" techniques), fine-tuni…

I think the more salient points for the paywalls is people want pay once access everything, instead of piecemeal. I would certainly be happy to subscribe to "news" in general, but not a dozen different providers for one article apiece.

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

#140

Post by JackFr »

digitaltrees wrote: post #124
breezybottom wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well grifters can also be marks. It sounds like you're both.

Sounds like you need to learn some healthy communication. If this is how you show up in relation to others your network of collaborators will be small, keep you weak and limit your ability to effectuate your will in the world.

> limit your availability to effectuate your will in the world.

It might limit his ability to effect his will in the world, but I see his availability as unchanged.

Post reply on HN