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.
Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
281–290 of 513 posts
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#282Personally, 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.
The outdated sense of leader of the willingly lead is a different matter.
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#2834 hour work weeks is: Draw circle: Set up a highly successful business (prerequisite) Rest of owl: Delegate stuff (what the book says to do). It is pretty useless. Not suprised sales have declined especially since startups probably got harder since when it was written.
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#284> 2025 was the first big drop, 2026 looks more severe, and the only thing that’s really changed in that timeframe is the acceleration of AI. It all hinges on this statement. But I’m not sure it’s really AI that’s doing it, and not just a contributing factor. There’s higher cost of living, inflation, economic uncertainty, seemingly looming financial crisis, etc. A lot of impactful things happened!
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#285Some of the best books on JS which were online went recently off-line for that reason. Blog post by the author: https://2ality.com/ (Dr. Axel Rauschmayer)
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#286unfortunately, as a reader, I am not buying any books post-ChatGPT era. Author maybe did their best, but it anyways feels like I will be buying ChatGPT's opinion
The same phrases and patterns repeated over and over again, blech.
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#287Self-help is not the canary for other genre. Self-help doesn't comme with significant art. Their consumer gets a better experience through LLM that extracts the substance and contextualizes it.
It doesn't tell what will happen at scale regarding fiction and other content where people tends to expect a genuine human contribution. Sure you can get success with AI-written or AI-assisted writing, but it doesn't mean human written books will no longer catch interest.
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#288I have read countless self help books where I complained about fluffy filler material and the book should have been fifty pages instead of two hundred. Not a surprise to me that a topic distilled through an LLM is a better experience.
Or youtube. The youtube video essays can still be way too much waffle, but it's at least capped out at about 30 minutes and cost you nothing so you can quit if it's not useful.
Recently, I had a similar idea when I tried to watch the TV series "SAS: Rogue Heroes". I quit after a few episodes because it was so damn slow. I spent most of each episode skipping pointless dialog and overly long landscape/driving scenes that added little to the story. I am sure the two seasons (10-20 hours) could easily be condensed into a much more exciting 2-4 hour film. I have heard the saying that the hardest type of novel to write is the shortest one. Constraint forces an author to carefully select the words, characters, and storyline that make the most compelling novel. When I was younger, films were rarely more than 90 minutes. These days, so many of them are more than 120 minutes with very little gained... just the same story was watered down over 30+ more minutes.
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#289Only mental health and longevity remain outstanding.
Re: Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?
#2904 hour work weeks is: Draw circle: Set up a highly successful business (prerequisite) Rest of owl: Delegate stuff (what the book says to do). It is pretty useless. Not suprised sales have declined especially since startups probably got harder since when it was written.
Perhaps, but them how do you explain the claimed pattern that sales had been unusually consistent until just recently?