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> I'll add that the demise of bookstores means few even see or are aware that the books exist. According to this data[0] (take it with a grain of salt), there

> I'll add that the demise of bookstores means few even see or are aware that the books exist. According to this data[0] (take it with a grain of salt), there are as of 2017 at least >20,000 book stores in the U.S. Pretty much every job gives you a book (policy manual) when you get hired. Schools, even the most technologically advanced, still have plenty of physical books. So although I agree with most of your comment, I'd gander to say most of humanity knows physical books exist. [0]:https://www.statista.com/statistics/249027/number-of-bookstores-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/249027/number-of-booksto...

hackuser 9y ago
I didn't mean that that people aren't aware that such things as books exist, which of course would be absurd. I meant that people aren't aware of the serious and scholarly books that exist because they don't experience the serendipity[0] of seeing them in particular, or en masse, in the bookstore. [0] IIRC, serendipity is actually part of the design of library arrangement systems (Library of Congress, Dewey, etc.): Books are arranged so that you will happen across related information when you look for the book you came for.
- sedachv 9y ago
  This point cannot be overstated right now. Recommendation systems like Amazon's are terrible for book discovery compared to looking at the rest of the shelf when you are getting a book at a library. There is a popular sentiment that the Internet has made knowledge discovery easier than going to the library, which in my experience is absolutely misleading, and is causing people to wrongly believe they have done research on a subject when in fact they have completely overlooked a giant corpus of published material.
posguy 9y ago
> Pretty much every job gives you a book (policy manual) when you get hired. Whoa whoa whoa, you are painting with broad strokes here. Most businesses are small businesses, and most of those have a handful of guidelines at best, even when you get above a dozen employees. In the mid-size bracket of businesses, I know 300 employee businesses with no proper policy manual.
- tradersam 9y ago
  My apologies, every company I've ever worked for (even the one person cobbler shop I worked at in high school) gave me one, so I guess this example was anecdotal.
  - posguy 9y ago
    I've worked at a few businesses, and the closest I ever got to a booklet with rules was toward the end of my first job, where they tried to ban sharing of salaries and quite a few other things. Ended up calling L&I to address the illicit policy and quit a few months later.

hackuser 9y ago

I didn't mean that that people aren't aware that such things as books exist, which of course would be absurd. I meant that people aren't aware of the serious and scholarly books that exist because they don't experience the serendipity[0] of seeing them in particular, or en masse, in the bookstore. [0] IIRC, serendipity is actually part of the design of library arrangement systems (Library of Congress, Dewey, etc.): Books are arranged so that you will happen across related information when you look for the book you came for.

sedachv 9y ago
This point cannot be overstated right now. Recommendation systems like Amazon's are terrible for book discovery compared to looking at the rest of the shelf when you are getting a book at a library. There is a popular sentiment that the Internet has made knowledge discovery easier than going to the library, which in my experience is absolutely misleading, and is causing people to wrongly believe they have done research on a subject when in fact they have completely overlooked a giant corpus of published material.

posguy 9y ago

> Pretty much every job gives you a book (policy manual) when you get hired. Whoa whoa whoa, you are painting with broad strokes here. Most businesses are small businesses, and most of those have a handful of guidelines at best, even when you get above a dozen employees. In the mid-size bracket of businesses, I know 300 employee businesses with no proper policy manual.

tradersam 9y ago
My apologies, every company I've ever worked for (even the one person cobbler shop I worked at in high school) gave me one, so I guess this example was anecdotal.
- posguy 9y ago
  I've worked at a few businesses, and the closest I ever got to a booklet with rules was toward the end of my first job, where they tried to ban sharing of salaries and quite a few other things. Ended up calling L&I to address the illicit policy and quit a few months later.