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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?

#41

Post by operatingthetan »

>But looking more closely, Self-help had the steepest subcategory decline, with units down 26.3% year-over-year. Only two of 16 subcategories—crafts/hobbies/antiques/games and religion—grew at all (9.6% and 1.6%, respectively). The exceptions alone could make an interesting blog post for another time.

Self help being generally part of a larger grift pipeline for authors (for selling overpriced courses, seminars, retreats, infoproducts etc.), this is an actual positive silver lining for AI in society.

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

#43

Post by submeta »

I suspect AI is replacing my need for productivity content much faster than it’s replacing my need for books.

I read fewer blog posts, fewer newsletters, fewer “10 lessons from…” articles, and fewer productivity videos than I did three years ago.

But I still buy books.

The first casualties seem to be the intermediaries, not necessarily the original sources.

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

#44

Post by ryandrake »

aerhardt wrote: post #35
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.

I wonder, if the technology will actually get to the point where it can AI/Remix up a bunch of TV shows or movies that are as high quality / nonslop as the original, and if that would satisfy me.

Let's say I'm living in the past and think Star Trek TNG and the X-Files was peak TV. If I could just hit enter and generate an in-all-ways-believably-authentic episode, maybe I just wouldn't watch anything else. Would it matter to my brain that real people didn't make the episode if it was indistinguishable from the real thing?

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

#45

Post by PaulHoule »

RajT88 wrote: post #36
PaulHoule wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, but it's the worst of the four. I remember his advice that you should buy a rental property which is cashflow positive after the mortgage payment on day one. (As opposed to profitable considering that you're building equity)

These were just not on the market except for one that had 8 section 8 apartments and would have driven me crazy trying to manage as a bleeding heart who cares about people.

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

#46

Post by tiahura »

citizenpaul wrote: post #15
burkaman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never read it but I think Atlas Shrugged might qualify. I don't think I've ever heard anyone praise the plot or talk about it as a novel, instead people who liked it say it changed their life, changed how they view themselves, etc.

I think it appeals to people with toxic "lone wolf" mentality.

The other, of course, involves orcs.

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

#47

Post by [deleted] »

aerhardt wrote: post #35
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.

[deleted]

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

#48

Post by tliltocatl »

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.

"Self-help nonfiction" have always been a waste of paper. And honestly, most of the time I hear "X was replaced by AI" I find myself thinking "good riddance, but we could drop X altogether and not loose anything of value."

Fiction, on the other hand… Much of fiction's value isn't just the content itself, is that they create a shared language medium. A book might actually be meh (came up with some examples, but then decided to drop it so as not to offend anyone), but the fact that people you talk with have read the same book and understand same references makes reading it valuable. So, it's unlikely to happen, until we delegate all of our communication to AIs, which isn't likely to happen any time soon.

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

#49

Post by plagiarist »

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.

I liked Ferris explaining that you can validate a market exists by serving ads pretending you already have a product. What a scumbag. Isn't the rest of the book just drop shipping and selling supplements with high margins? I recall snippets of a manual for unethical but mostly legal small business between stories of people making money on such practices.

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

#50

Post by __alexander »

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.
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