Depends on the kind of book and subject matter. Dwarkesh is right about books you need to read all or nearly all of to get the benefit. But to answer "Do peopl

Depends on the kind of book and subject matter. Dwarkesh is right about books you need to read all or nearly all of to get the benefit. But to answer "Do people care about understanding?" for a lot of books: No. The reader cares about their problems and solving them. Based on reader feedback, only a special kind of reader reads a programming book cover to cover. 90%+ people who read substantial parts of a programming book, dip into the parts that interest them after, perhaps, reading the first few chapters to figure out how to navigate the book. Online, you have the freedom to do better and to publish similar material in multiple modes, from passive and linear, to self-paced interactive to human-guided. There isn't one answer, which the post touches on in several places including regarding spaced repetition. LLMs are likely to have an impact on the value of pedagogical techniques like spaced repetition because spaced repetition is a tool for overcoming human impediments to acquiring and navigating huge, difficult, knowledge bases. Then using that knowledge requires enormous effort and aptitude. That's where humans competing with LLMs are like pick-and-shovel miners competing with a giant dragline at mining coal.