[gbnwl]

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over.

It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in one sitting.

[collingreen]

> It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post

I didn't realize how poignant of a criticism this could be. Holy hell that hit hard.

[neilk]

Yeah this is a bit sad. I think maybe this person actually had some real lived experience and wrote bullet points and then generated the book. I don’t even want to think about the possibility that the whole thing, including anecdotes, might be generated.

I skimmed the content (it has no immediate relevance to my life) but even the chapter headings are sloppadocious.

[georgeburdell]

>lived experience

Not to derail your comment, but what is the purpose of prepending the word "lived" to the word "experience"? Is there experience that's not lived? It's strange to me to imply that knowledge gained from others telling you about something can be called "experience". I've seen the term pop up in particular circumstances in the last several years and it smacks to me of a dog whistle.

[silentkat]

It’s a form of contrastive reduplication. Used to emphasize the realness of the experience, versus like second hand experience like interviewing those who have the actual experience.

Also consider a phrase like “work work” versus “school work”. For someone who both works a paid job and goes to school, clarifying that they need to do “work work” makes sense.

[Retric]

You can experience things second hand. I wouldn’t object to someone saying ‘my experience with chemo’ when talking about their spouse’s disease. They can tell you not just the symptoms but what their insurance company did etc.

Still while watching a loved one deal with cancer is an intense experience and gives you way more insight than you had before you didn’t have the lived experience of having cancer, thus the distinction.

[neilk]

You're right that it's become a stock phrase, is somewhat redundant, and I used it without thinking. I strive to avoid such stock phrases (see Orwell's Politics and the English Language), so I thank you for drawing my attention to that.

I don't think it's a dog whistle. A dog whistle is when you signal something to a subgroup of your audience, using language that only they will understand. I have not seen "lived experience" used as a dog whistle.

I have seen it used to contrast official or elite discourse with what happens in one's daily life. For example, official statistics may show that crime is down in your area, but that does not comport with how you are now avoiding certain areas of town completely. Or a woman might be told that their company does not penalize them for taking maternity leave, but in practice they see they are sidelined. The "lived experience" trope is usually deployed when you start trusting your own biography, even the reactions of your own body, as a source of knowledge, opposing dominant narratives.

According to my very some brief research, it seems to have entered English from German, in the writings of Simone de Beauvoir.

[zhyan7109]

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

[quamserena]

You can simply ask the model to point out if there are any problems and then fix them yourself. You don't have to copy and paste its output into your book. You can also pay for an actual copyeditor to edit your book.

[n_u]

You can also edit it yourself and then ask a friend, relative, or colleague to read the parts you are struggling with improving. "Does this sentence flow? Is there a better way to say this? Is this confusing?"

If you're going to sink time into writing a book, it's worth spending some time editing it so your message gets through clearly. But that's just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

[Klaus23]

Perhaps this is what you are looking for: https://www.deepl.com/en/write

It corrects spelling errors and improves awkward wording. You can then go and choose alternative sentences or words. Just don't expect any sort of deeper intelligence.

[malshe]

If it is only to fix grammar and improve conciseness, I find grammarly quite useful. AI goes way beyond these things. Also, while making something concise, AI might make things more difficult for the readers to understand. Worse, it might write something that is totally wrong.

[unyttigfjelltol]

The workflow is fine, the content is fine. The LLM needs to lean in a little harder on your voice and condensing your content— focus on subtraction rather than addition.

The problem is: viewed as a one-off, it’s a gem. But put it on the AI slop conveyor many commenters here apparently are fed all day long, the voice is too similar, it seems like another chapter in that anthology.

[pryelluw]

Hiring a fairly competent editor is affordable (sometimes even cheap). Specially now that a lot of the commercial copywriting has taken a hit with the ai slop

[greazy]

LLM writing reads like shitty blogs turned into books. I'm not sure what this is called, but when the chapter can be summed up in a sentence or two, but fleshed out to cover 3 or four pages, with multiple anecdotes conveying the same concept.

[rrr_oh_man]

> I'm not sure what this is called, but when the chapter can be summed up in a sentence or two, but fleshed out to cover 3 or four pages, with multiple anecdotes conveying the same concept.

This is how I felt when I read Tony Robbins. Or a modern business book.

[Eridrus]

I dunno how much folks should trust this as more of an account of his specific journey, given this guy apparently didn't do an 83b election and got stuck with a big tax bill (ch 11).

[zhyan7109]

OP here, 83b didn’t apply in my case as I had only stick options, referenced in chapter 11

[Eridrus]

Yeah, but as a founder, why did you have stock options rather than stock with a vesting agreement?

Even early employees can early exercise and file an 83b.

This chapter is just self inflicted through bad planning, where the correct advice is to vest stock and make sure you file an 83b when you start the company.

The advice everyone should be getting here is not "don't take out a loan", but "make sure you get stock and an 83b"