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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?

#31

Post by losteric »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #9

This stat is limited to print-books only. He talks about all sorts of other forms of content, but seems to mysteriously miss audio books. If this source [0] is true then 65% of audiobooks (in 2022) were non-fiction. Likewise that the audiobook industry has grown by nearly 3x since 2022. So, by my math, it's simply that people prefer to listen to self-help books (which matches my own experience). [0] - https://electro…

How does this

> If this source [0] is true then 65% of audiobooks (in 2022) were non-fiction. Likewise that the audiobook industry has grown by nearly 3x since a2022.

Lead to

> by my math, it's simply that people prefer to listen to self-help books (which matches my own experience).

I'm not sure I see the math there, when most nonfiction is not self-help books (and an increase in the broader genre says nothing about a specific niche)

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

#32

Post by delichon »

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.

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

#33

Post by RajT88 »

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…

It's a mixed bag. When you're (for example) repairing a lawnmower, being able to see parts from different angles and hear what it sounds like is very useful.

When you're trying to repair a Playstation motherboard, you gonna need some photos and text.

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

#34

Post by eggplantemoji69 »

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…

Yeah since most are visual learners. Of course reading is quicker.

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

#35

Post by aerhardt »

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.

You say soon but what you just described is still sci-fi as far as I can tell.

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

#36

Post by RajT88 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #27
deadbabe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! plenty of them: The Secret, The 4-hour Work Week, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, etc…

I think there are some good things in the 4-hour Work Week but the concept as a whole is problematic: e.g. Tim Ferris himself has more like a 400-hour work week. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a right wing scam. There is a psychotechnology that people call "magic" but The Secret and Think and Grow Rich won't teach you it.

> Rich Dad Poor Dad is a right wing scam.

I think he was actually saying that by calling it fiction, lol.

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

#37

Post by rayiner »

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…

It’s because large fractions of internet users today are functionally illiterate and can’t follow an article.

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

#38

Post by Larrikin »

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…

I wonder why not write an article for people with correct information. Then have the LLM create 5 articles with slightly wrong information with generated plausible URLs.

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

#40

Post by plagiarist »

_pdp_ wrote: post #23

> Find your 1,000 True Fans. If you started off doing this well but have meandered, it’s time to revisit. Get very clear on who those 1,000 people are. Well this is the difficult part. You can 10x the number of followers and still have less than 50 true fans. On the actual content, I am actually not surprised at all. These AI systems are surprisingly convincing when giving personal advise - for better or worse.

With a book you cannot do "that's not what I wanted to read, I'll adjust the prompt."
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