Programming Tutorials Are Dead

One thing that LLMs will give us, is the ability to make really interesting and exciting tutorials. We can do that by hand, now, but it's a lot of work. I know of which I speak. I've been doing tutorials forever, but they haven't been particularly popular. Part of that, is that I'm pretty bad at self-promotion, and having that eau d'expert scent about you, is a big selling point. I really don't waste much time, trying to convince people that I have something they want, so they don't want it.

That part will still be necessary. I suspect LLMs can help polish and optimize self-promotion, but that also means everyone else will be doing it, and the competition is likely to be stiff.

Strange… I have purchased more technical books this year (and read them) than the last five years combined.

I would not pay for something so obviously extremely AI generated. If your sales are slipping, I don’t think this helps.

I looked one up yesterday. For Pure Data.

LLMs hopeless in that domain I have found

I find it interesting that course/book authors are blaming LLMs and likely not the more obvious example of how the US has been in a faltering k-shaped economy for years where the industry you want sell material to has dealt with constant layoffs + anti-worker tactics over the same time period. If people aren't secure in their jobs, they aren't going to waste money buying something they don't need.

Also people just age out of buying this stuff, what use do I have for programming books after working 15 years in the industry? The docs have always been sufficient to learn on your own IME. That plus realizing there are other fun things to do with your one single life than constantly "upskilling."

Use to be a massive subscriber to frontend masters, but the site has honestly sucked for years where they rotate the same dev influencers teaching the same courses year after year. Hard to justify subscribing to something that hasn't really innovated or done interesting projects in half a decade.

Programming tutorials are still alive, coding tutorials are dead.

Coding is going to be limited to hobbyists and specialized professionals, time of mass coding is behind us. Like the time of mass knowledge of assembly, human computers, etc.

Learning programming now is like learning how to use a cotton gin or something, its an antiquated hobby at best now, not a profession so it shouldnt be a surprise it isnt lucrative anymore