The enshittification of non-fiction

I read [[ Clear Thinking ]] by Shane Parrish and was reminded that most modern non-fiction books have been [[ enshittified ]] to the point of rendering them useless. I suspect this will worsen as AI further lowers the barriers to creating books and promotes generic and homogenous writing style.

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 probably a product of big publishing houses having margins squeezed and needing every book to cater to the broadest possible audience. But it is still possible to find books that avoid this trap.

[[ Nassim Taleb ]] is the most obvious example. He makes a point of only writing what he wants to read, eschewing convention in favour of writing only the interesting parts, in as much depth and complexity as he deems necessary. He also famously ignores editing input, and while not every author has the leverage to achieve this, the popularity of Taleb’s books, with all of their colour and technicality and idiosyncrasies, proves that unconventional sells.

I’m also reminded of [[ Finite and Infinite Games ]], a legendary and completely alien book that resembles nothing else I have ever read. It makes no sense through the lens of modern pop non-fiction, but I have thought about it for years since reading.

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.

In direct response to this I started reading [[ From Third World to First ]], the memoirs of [[ Lee Kuan Yew ]] as his government strove to transform Singapore in the wake of British withdrawal. Despite no obvious application in my personal or professional life, I have already found a treasure trove of ideas and lessons equivalent to the reading a dozen enshittified books.

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