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Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

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

#361

Post by drumhead »

There's a misconception about self help books that they teach you "tricks" that you can instantly use to become a completely different person. A lot of the good ones teach you principles that you need to practice constantly to improve. There's hard work and risk taking involved which many people that buy the books are not prepared to do.

The first self help book that actually helped me was How to make friends and influence people. It was hard for me to overcome my shyness and look people in the eye and smile, but with constant practice I got better at it. Taking an interest in people or being agreeable these are all basic principles that genuinely good communicators use, the book just points you in the right direction you have to apply the hard work and courage.

Good self-help books are rare but they do exist.

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

#362

Post by wisty »

IMO the WORST thing you can use chat for is advice in a field you are unfamiliar with. It's way better at search and grunt work when you already know what you want.

All IMO:

Syncophancy (and in extreme cases AI psychosis) is a huge problem when you take advice from AI.

It's risky to learn a new field as you often just fall for a superficial, glib explaination and just nod along without learning. AI will do that because humans will train it to - everyone likes a pop science style easy and fake explaination.

OTOH if you just want advice, the AI will need context. Advice is worthless without context. And the AI will use the context to tell you what the dumb human (you) will agree with - that's implicitly what humans want it to do, it's how we will train the AI.

I don't see it getting better either - as long as a human in the loop fine tunes the AI, the smarter the AI the better it is at telling the human what the human wants.

Scary stuff if a major current use of AI is self help.

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

#364

Post by hmontazeri »

For me sure I’ll get a summary of a book or some video but that’s more like let me find out if the whole thing is worth my time instead of replacing the medium. Everyone who has read a non fiction book once’s knows it’s not about what the summary alone can teach you.. it’s the story and the learning through pain and reflection

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

#366

Post by wwqrd »

myaccountonhn wrote: post #355
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.

Self-help books are so often ridiculued, and that ridicule is often well merited. At the same time there was a self-help book that basically gave me a whole different outlook on life, and cured my depression over night. So I can't deny they have a place and can really help people.

What was the book?

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

#367

Post by Sam6late »

I think the acquisition of skills need human guidance,AI has created a quality problem making human self-help books more valuable.

From a new language to public speaking to media training.Some books need more than structure by AI, that is professional knowledge and real-life experience. AI has a vast information ocean, yet a travel book helped me prepare my underwater kit because WiFi does not work underwater, saving me a lot of money I could have wasted on wireless kit.

Take AI apps for teaching languages,Langua is a good example, I think the most successful ones combine human instructors for insights and guidance with AI for drills prescribed and calibrated by the tutor. AI drills are not the same.

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

#368

Post by ghtbircshotbe »

drumhead wrote: post #361

There's a misconception about self help books that they teach you "tricks" that you can instantly use to become a completely different person. A lot of the good ones teach you principles that you need to practice constantly to improve. There's hard work and risk taking involved which many people that buy the books are not prepared to do. The first self help book that actually helped me was How to make friends and inf…

Self help books definitely have a bad reputation, often with good reason - lots of cliches, preachy, etc.

My favorite advice (and central message I think) from "how to win friends" is to really have the other person's interests at heart, not to try to scam or game them.

Some of my other favorite self help-ish books - a guide to the good life - thank you for arguing - algorithms to live by

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

#369

Post by n4r9 »

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.

It's "learning how to..." rather than "learning that...". Good self-help books can provide a framework to understand how your own childhood development influences your current behaviours, and how you can work to change. I'm currently reading "Parenting from the Inside Out" which goes into both the psychology and neurology of the developing brain, and explains how insecure childhood attachment can propagate across generations. I have a mixture of dismissive/avoidant and anxious attachment thought patterns, and it's been helpful to put this into context by reflecting on my own childhood and where they might have come from. Those patterns gradually feel less like something I'm "stuck with" and more like something I can challenge and master.
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