Nonfiction Books Face Decline as AI Personalization Reshapes Content

My full post: https://tim.blog/nonfiction

@tferriss I’m a fan of AI. I made a career around it. But I still think it’s important to force myself to read and create long-form content. I want to be someone that has quick access to information internally without needing to ask my information calculator for the answer.

@JeremyRyanSlate So funny to see this perspective called "niche" when it's the bubble I am totally surrounded in, live and breath (social media-wise).

X is a good place to meme about that topic these days, so good timing!

I get the sense that there will be genuine desire for things that are purely human, including all the nuance flaws that human bring to the table.

Overly perfect perfection doesn’t make things interesting. Connection, feeling like you matter, and digging into something truly humanly unique is what people will end up chasing.

I agree with this. I got bored of the go big and broad thing and it became less successful. So I went back to what I went to school for: creating content around a framework I call The Roman Pattern, Rome as a case study for civilizational collapse. It was incredibly niche but more rewarding than anything else I've done.

@tferriss I read your post through the email the other day. Honestly, from a fan of yours and many other authors. The closer the interaction the better. It's probably worse for the smaller people. You will always have fans that will pay to hear from you

@tferriss Most self-help books are just copied from other's ideas. The dozens of books of Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins are "Just Do It" repackaged over and over. People who have NEW ideas will be ok. People who just repackage the same old shinola in a different can will be in trouble.

@tferriss Podcast idea: Have a 4-way discussion about this with 3 other authors.

Talk about AI, writing, marketing, and the business of being an author.

@tferriss Authors don't have it easy - write a book too technical and you lose 90% of readers. Too broad and it feels like a waste of time. Also, the commitment to write a book vs make a GREAT video where the money can come faster must also weigh on authors.

@tferriss Read this exact idea in Tools of Titans years ago, Stuck with me since. Crazy how relevant it still is and can be applied in any field.

@tferriss how about just writing something new, interesting, and useful?

@tferriss I am keeping my best idea to myself, using only local AI to work on it, and not publishing anything on it. I plan to socialize it personally and work with people 1:1 in person. Sorry, AI. This idea is mine, you can't devour it.

@tferriss CBCs are so back

I think there will still be room in the non-fiction space for those who are able to build a "relationship" with their readers, in the sense that a lot of people share the same advice, but not everyone is willing to hear that advice from everyone.

So, if you're able to meet someone where they are at, when they are ready, people are more likely to benefit from that.

Of course, people can "just ask an LLM" but then you have to trust the answer, be able to evaluate the answer, and you have to know to ask the right questions.

It seems like there's still space in that through curation, trust, and clarity of thought.

Now that more and more menial and mundane tasks can be automated, it allow the true strengths of the human brain to emerge: creativity and curiosity.

These were obscured (or worse, quashed) for many years pre- and post-industrial revolution due to the necessity of routine work for survival.

That's somewhat fading away, now (at least it is for high agency individuals).

@tferriss If you look at some of the great writers, they really weren’t commercial success stories in their lifetime. Not sure they were chasing the money. They were following the muse. The tides you describe are external and the muse is internal. Stay internal.

@tferriss As you said, in the end there is no other choice

@tferriss As the market for information collapses, it may provide an opportunity to regain our ability to sense and engage with the energy within and around us. We are sensing beings caught up in all the information. Energy is everything.

@tferriss What’s replacing prescriptive non-fiction?

@tferriss Oh how I long to return to the early days of the Internet

I just turned 40 so I grew up in tandem with the PC and then Internet revolutions