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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?

#391

Post by swiftcoder »

Fantosism wrote: post #246
murkt wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Never Split the Difference”, which is a book about how to successfully communicate with terrorists. Very suitable for talking with kids! I’ve even read aloud a few chapters to my kids, because it’s very suitable for communication with parents as well

I mean this with the purest intentions. I've read Never Split the Difference, Never Eat Alone, Getting More, How to Win Friends and Influence People, etc. How do you get it to feel like it's not manipulation? I get all of these books advertise not to lie, but at the end of the day, I'm reshaping my speech to achieve a certain goal, rather than to convey facts. The best line I've come up with is something like: am I s…

> but at the end of the day, I'm reshaping my speech to achieve a certain goal, rather than to convey facts.

The idea that the only goal of communication is to convey facts is (charitably) a pretty autistic view of interpersonal relationships.

There are many situations where conveying facts is not the primary goal, and there's a world of difference just in how facts are conveyed. Facts probably aren't going to stop your toddler screaming for ice cream. Telling your wife that dress makes her look fat likely isn't going to help either one of you. Calling out a coworker when they are wrong isn't going to improve your working relationship. And so on...

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

#392

Post by ssgodderidge »

DoughnutHole wrote: post #390
Gareth321 wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely this could be corrected by using the correct prompt? If you ask an AI to summarise a book, it's going to cut out 99% of the content. If you wanted to read some of that 99% of the content, you need to be clear about what you want. Otherwise you're leaving the AI to decide. That summary might be good enough for others, but not you. Tell it the focus you would like it to use. E.g. "include anything about the phil…

Most of the time I’ve gotten major value or insight out of a book it’s because it’s said something truly unique or insightful that I genuinely never would have thought of if I hadn’t read it. Your prompt is useless because I might think I care about area A but I’d have my mind blown by area B which your prompt will drop unless it somehow has a perfect theory of my mind. Sometimes you just have to read to damn book.

Agreed. There’s also something about “time under consideration.” The relatively slow pace of reading the book opens the door to personal insight that a summary hides. The words themselves might be important, but I’ve found the additional minutes of a book is critical for me to fully apply the concepts to my life.

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

#393

Post by piltdownman »

DanielHB wrote: post #345
jeffrwells wrote: post #338

Here I had Claude rewrite his post into a 300 word version without all the filler. https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/d49d81d6-7aab-4730-9c3c-4... Which I’m sharing as a meta point…I think self help books are declining because there’s a better way to get the information without all the filler. But filler makes the books thick enough to sell at the airport Also - aren’t LLMs the ultimate choose your own adventure vers…

It is the same thing with documentaries. Youtube killed them because it is just a faster delivery of knowledge and information. For super-specific questions chatbots are even faster.

I think you're confusing video-essays with documentaries tbf.

The notion that 'My Octopus Teacher' or 'Boys State' - to name just two award winners of the last decade - could be replaced with some Youtube AI-narrated slop is just disingenuous in the extreme.

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

#394

Post by piltdownman »

__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.

There's an influencer self-help industry, and then there's the likes of Alain De Botton whose output like 'How Proust Can Change Your Life' firmly sits in the self-help arena. Important to distinguish the two imo.

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

#395

Post by telesilla »

gb2d_hn wrote: post #378
wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know if you did it on purpose or not, but this is hilarious.

Self help books are the most filler heavy books. They often have a useful point, but they just don't need to be a book much of the time. This is unfortunate for the authors who have often put significant time into producing the information. Technical manuals typically need all of their content due to the level of detail, and novels need all of their content because it's the content which provides enjoyment. For self…

I disagree about the filler. People who read self help books are there for the journey, to feel they too can take on the challenge. Otherwise that brief document about how to fix yourself becomes something without substance, that can't be attached to real changes that are needed.

The most effective self help books I can recommend are Easy Way to Stop Smoking, which needs all the preamble to get the message to your addicted brain, and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. I'd posit that reading just one of his entries doesn't leave you with a lifetime commitment to stoicism.

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

#396

Post by prmoustache »

Or maybe it is just a coincidence that people have grown tired of this kind of bullshits. This genre has been trendy for a while already, there had to be a moment people would just collectively realize their life is not measurably better after reading so many of them.

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

#397

Post by xnx »

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 much quicker and cheaper to produce

I agree that a huge percent of 10+ minute YouTube videos would be better off as a few sentences and a bulleted list.

The success of YouTube and TikTok has shown that video is by far the easiest way for the average person to share whatever they know and have a chance of getting it seen. Where would the average person even post a article?

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

#398

Post by gcr »

jeffrwells wrote: post #338

Here I had Claude rewrite his post into a 300 word version without all the filler. https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/d49d81d6-7aab-4730-9c3c-4... Which I’m sharing as a meta point…I think self help books are declining because there’s a better way to get the information without all the filler. But filler makes the books thick enough to sell at the airport Also - aren’t LLMs the ultimate choose your own adventure vers…

[dead]

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

#399

Post by technothrasher »

NiloCK wrote: post #343
Panzer04 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People use LLMs for news?

Long ago a friend of a friend described a job interview at an ice cream / chocolate shop in a local mall. The interviewer asked something like "who is our competition here?", and the friend of friend listed off other places in the mall to get ice cream, candy, deserts, etc. Wrong answer. The ice cream and chocolate store was in competition with every other store in the mall. Time or money spent at the GAP can't be ti…

> Wrong answer. The ice cream and chocolate store was in competition with every other store in the mall. Time or money spent at the GAP can't be time or money spent here.

I would have argued that this is also the wrong answer, as without the GAP to bring people to the mall, nobody would be trafficking their little ice cream store at all. Did a mall vendor really not understand the reason they had opened up shop in a mall?

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

#400

Post by sjamaan »

sinuhe69 wrote: post #351
jeffrwells wrote: post #338

Here I had Claude rewrite his post into a 300 word version without all the filler. https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/d49d81d6-7aab-4730-9c3c-4... Which I’m sharing as a meta point…I think self help books are declining because there’s a better way to get the information without all the filler. But filler makes the books thick enough to sell at the airport Also - aren’t LLMs the ultimate choose your own adventure vers…

I’ve spent time to read the AI summary (which I normally never do) and the original (of course), and I can tell you the AI summary missed the most important point of the writing. I’d say what they are because it would defy the very purpose of what I’m trying to do. But I can tell you that it’s enough to refute the AI fallacy many believe.

It's a shame grandparent's link gives a 404 now, I'd love to compare the two.
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