3 ms·

As an author ... People will gladly buy physical books off you, but they won't pay for articles. There seems to be a mental barrier between those two. A physic

As an author ... People will gladly buy physical books off you, but they won't pay for articles. There seems to be a mental barrier between those two. A physical book in your hand probably feels more real, though the total amount of work isn't that different (to a series of articles).

HDThoreaun 3y ago
Zero marginal cost structure of the internet has conditioned everyone to thinking digital goods should be free. Remember that anti piracy ad with "you wouldnt download a car" and literally everyone was like "of course I would download a car if I could"
- inglor_cz 3y ago
  "of course I would download a car if I could" LOL at that, you're right. When it comes to content online, we live in an era of total abundance. This is the sort of abundance that used to be considered utopian. You will literally never run out of excellent texts for free, a mere human just cannot read them fast enough. Same with videos, games etc. But that abundance has significant downsides for the people who create all that content. Competing with free stuff is a task for Sisyphos.
  - CMCDragonkai 3y ago
    And even more abundance is coming with the advent of generative AI. The problem now isn't scarcity of content. It's signal vs noise. As a consumer of content what we want is content specifically relevant and valuable to us, but there is too much noise most of the time. As a producer of content we want to is to be able to capture some of that value. For example if there was a source of content that have me an advantage in some domain area I work on, I would absolutely pay for it. (And in fact I do, like chatgpt plus). For entertainment content there's probably enough free stuff that most people don't care to pay.
- joquarky 3y ago
  It didn't condition us, it reminded us that intellectual property is a social abstraction that flows against nature
JohnFen 3y ago
A physical book is more real. If I buy a book, I have that book available to me effectively forever. If I "buy" something that only exists online, it's temporary.
- segfaltnh 3y ago
  But, at least for me, when I buy a book I may actually read it (maybe), and then it sits around until I manage to donate it when I move in seven years. Is it really any different from a digital purchase I forget about?
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    Maybe not for you, but there are tons of people who reread treasured books regularly. For that crowd, a digital purchase is not great.

HDThoreaun 3y ago

Zero marginal cost structure of the internet has conditioned everyone to thinking digital goods should be free. Remember that anti piracy ad with "you wouldnt download a car" and literally everyone was like "of course I would download a car if I could"

inglor_cz 3y ago
"of course I would download a car if I could" LOL at that, you're right. When it comes to content online, we live in an era of total abundance. This is the sort of abundance that used to be considered utopian. You will literally never run out of excellent texts for free, a mere human just cannot read them fast enough. Same with videos, games etc. But that abundance has significant downsides for the people who create all that content. Competing with free stuff is a task for Sisyphos.
- CMCDragonkai 3y ago
  And even more abundance is coming with the advent of generative AI. The problem now isn't scarcity of content. It's signal vs noise. As a consumer of content what we want is content specifically relevant and valuable to us, but there is too much noise most of the time. As a producer of content we want to is to be able to capture some of that value. For example if there was a source of content that have me an advantage in some domain area I work on, I would absolutely pay for it. (And in fact I do, like chatgpt plus). For entertainment content there's probably enough free stuff that most people don't care to pay.
joquarky 3y ago
It didn't condition us, it reminded us that intellectual property is a social abstraction that flows against nature

JohnFen 3y ago

A physical book is more real. If I buy a book, I have that book available to me effectively forever. If I "buy" something that only exists online, it's temporary.

segfaltnh 3y ago
But, at least for me, when I buy a book I may actually read it (maybe), and then it sits around until I manage to donate it when I move in seven years. Is it really any different from a digital purchase I forget about?
- JohnFen 3y ago
  Maybe not for you, but there are tons of people who reread treasured books regularly. For that crowd, a digital purchase is not great.