The enshittification of non-fiction

Most modern non-fiction books have been enshittified to the point of rendering them useless.

This is probably a product of big publishing houses having margins squeezed and needing every book to cater to the broadest possible audience. I suspect this will worsen as generative AI becomes more commonplace in writing and publishing processes, making it ever easier to create simulacrums of good writing (books that adhere to all the expected norms of popular fiction, but without any original content).

Here are some recurring characteristic of modern (enshittified) non-fiction:

• It offers a cursory overview of the topic, obviously targeted at the lowest common denominator reader and deathly scared of alienating anyone with complexity. This is profit maximisation in action, but in my worldview, a book should be a long-form treatment of a topic, going into deeper detail than anything available elsewhere (if that isn’t the reserve of the book, than what is?).
• Every basic point is belaboured to the point of absurdity. Even the most obvious, self-explanatory ideas and frameworks find themselves transformed into chapters and sub-chapters with ponderous elaboration and examples. There is no respect for the reader’s intelligence or curiosity.
• It offers armchair commentary on other people’s ideas. The most interesting parts of the book are those plucked verbatim from other, more notable works (I should have read those instead). The personal anecdotes are vague and feel manufactured to further belabour obvious points.
• The writing is soulless and generic, edited and clipped and curtailed until it becomes completely indistinguishable from the writing in every other pop non-fiction book.

This is a reminder to myself to read more esoterically, to look for ideas in uncommon places and not rely on pop non-fiction, no matter how interesting the subject matter seems; to seek out older books that have stood the test of time; and to re-read those rare few books that manage to leave a lasting impression on me.