3 ms·

Has anyone attempted to analyze the NYT hardback and softback lists for superficiality, by year? As Po Bronson remarked, I fear we are getting superficial, but

by smcin 4y ago

Has anyone attempted to analyze the NYT hardback and softback lists for superficiality, by year? As Po Bronson remarked, I fear we are getting superficial, but maybe even worse, we're (intentionally?) losing touch with any compass to objectively assess that. A lot of these titles feel like massaging people's egos to feel okay about doing bad or arbitrary things, while telling them how smart they are. Seems there's a growing market for that. One example of massively overrated MBA-school schlock: "Getting More: How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work and Life" - Stuart Diamond (2012).

namaria 4y ago
I don't know the answer to your question, but reality is 'most things suck'. It takes effort to make valuable things, and it takes effort to find valuable things. I don't think we are collectively trending either way.
- smcin 4y ago
  No, it's not accidental mediocrity, it's actual malice. Stuart Diamond's book is stuffed with underwhelming anecdotes teaching people to be pushy and manipulative with people in low-wage, low-security service jobs [in the US], but moreover selling them that this is being a "master negotiator with elite MBA-school skillz", not just super-pushy, annoying, entitled, whiny. Like the 'cure' for empathy. The only thing I took from it was "Wow it must really suck to work a low-wage, low-security service job in the US these days". I used to think "emotional labor" was hyperbole, but this sort of schlock would change my mind. ("one of the world's leading experts on negotiation. His book, has sold more than 1 million copies, making it world's largest selling book on the subject since it was published in 2011."(!?)) This is much worse than merely the empty superficiality that Po Bronson warned about, which seems harmless by comparison.
  - namaria 4y ago
    >No, it's not accidental mediocrity, it's actual malice. I agree it's there. But there's always been people willing to push out bad books for money. And there's also people putting as much, if not more, effort on quality content. I really don't think content is getting worse on average. There's a lot of fluctuation in the noise levels. But maybe the signal to noise ratio is getting worse. I don't systematically analyze this. Just honestly don't think it's harder to find good books now then 10 or 20 years ago. I did move from a country and language with a fraction of the publication volume you can find in English, and to a country with many high quality physical bookstore that I trust for curation and discoverability of material so I'm biased there.
    - smcin 4y ago
      My point was not that authors like Stuart Diamond exist, but that a garbage book like his made it to the top of any bestseller list, let alone the NYT list, or was widely praised as some treatise on "negotiation", which it clearly wasn't, yet very few reviewers described it for what it actually was. Plus, the outright weird insinuation ("branding!") that this sort of stuff is elite MBA-school wisdom; it isn't, it's normalizing bad behavior, doesn't matter how many letters you have after your name. Even old-school stuff like "How to Make Friends and Influence People" clearly implies that your behavior in interactions is not some consequence-free zone, the people/organizations on the receiving end of your influencing attempts have memories, and there are social limits on what behavior is too aggressive, greedy, pushy, unreasonable, manipulative. As well as boosting this sort of manipulative garbage, the NYT also runs articles on customer-service nightmares and dead-end jobs (and (gasp) 'authenticity'), which seems to having their cake and eating it. Maybe they'll empathize with anything, if the price is right.
      - namaria 4y ago
        What I get from this is you pay a lot of attention to content you dislike.
        smcin 4y ago
        No, I pay a lot of attention to content which influences the behavior of 100 million people, especially in a destructive way, especially when that influencing attempt is in itself dishonest. And stop with the ad-hominems. It's not about inferring my or anybody's emotions. It's about 100m people extolling that sort of book as some bible that it isn't. There's something zeitgeisty to the book and the reception it got, which is why I keep referencing the Po Bronson speech. Diamond's book an apologia for an entire generation being unreasonable and manipulative, which is noteworthy, just as previous books that captured a zeitgeist.
        namaria 4y ago
        What ad hominem? I'm not refuting anything you said. I just have no idea what is the point you're getting at. Do you want to crusade against bad books? I'm getting a lot of sentiment and no real argument or actionable advice in your comments.

by smcin 4y ago

namaria 4y ago

I don't know the answer to your question, but reality is 'most things suck'. It takes effort to make valuable things, and it takes effort to find valuable things. I don't think we are collectively trending either way.

smcin 4y ago
No, it's not accidental mediocrity, it's actual malice. Stuart Diamond's book is stuffed with underwhelming anecdotes teaching people to be pushy and manipulative with people in low-wage, low-security service jobs [in the US], but moreover selling them that this is being a "master negotiator with elite MBA-school skillz", not just super-pushy, annoying, entitled, whiny. Like the 'cure' for empathy. The only thing I took from it was "Wow it must really suck to work a low-wage, low-security service job in the US these days". I used to think "emotional labor" was hyperbole, but this sort of schlock would change my mind. ("one of the world's leading experts on negotiation. His book, has sold more than 1 million copies, making it world's largest selling book on the subject since it was published in 2011."(!?)) This is much worse than merely the empty superficiality that Po Bronson warned about, which seems harmless by comparison.
- namaria 4y ago
  >No, it's not accidental mediocrity, it's actual malice. I agree it's there. But there's always been people willing to push out bad books for money. And there's also people putting as much, if not more, effort on quality content. I really don't think content is getting worse on average. There's a lot of fluctuation in the noise levels. But maybe the signal to noise ratio is getting worse. I don't systematically analyze this. Just honestly don't think it's harder to find good books now then 10 or 20 years ago. I did move from a country and language with a fraction of the publication volume you can find in English, and to a country with many high quality physical bookstore that I trust for curation and discoverability of material so I'm biased there.
  - smcin 4y ago
    My point was not that authors like Stuart Diamond exist, but that a garbage book like his made it to the top of any bestseller list, let alone the NYT list, or was widely praised as some treatise on "negotiation", which it clearly wasn't, yet very few reviewers described it for what it actually was. Plus, the outright weird insinuation ("branding!") that this sort of stuff is elite MBA-school wisdom; it isn't, it's normalizing bad behavior, doesn't matter how many letters you have after your name. Even old-school stuff like "How to Make Friends and Influence People" clearly implies that your behavior in interactions is not some consequence-free zone, the people/organizations on the receiving end of your influencing attempts have memories, and there are social limits on what behavior is too aggressive, greedy, pushy, unreasonable, manipulative. As well as boosting this sort of manipulative garbage, the NYT also runs articles on customer-service nightmares and dead-end jobs (and (gasp) 'authenticity'), which seems to having their cake and eating it. Maybe they'll empathize with anything, if the price is right.
    - namaria 4y ago
      What I get from this is you pay a lot of attention to content you dislike.
      - smcin 4y ago
        No, I pay a lot of attention to content which influences the behavior of 100 million people, especially in a destructive way, especially when that influencing attempt is in itself dishonest. And stop with the ad-hominems. It's not about inferring my or anybody's emotions. It's about 100m people extolling that sort of book as some bible that it isn't. There's something zeitgeisty to the book and the reception it got, which is why I keep referencing the Po Bronson speech. Diamond's book an apologia for an entire generation being unreasonable and manipulative, which is noteworthy, just as previous books that captured a zeitgeist.
        namaria 4y ago
        What ad hominem? I'm not refuting anything you said. I just have no idea what is the point you're getting at. Do you want to crusade against bad books? I'm getting a lot of sentiment and no real argument or actionable advice in your comments.