While I mostly did it out of support and reducing x-risk, pre-ordering “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” has been one of the more frustrating book order experiences I’ve had. The main purpose of the order looks to be successful enough and the actual book experience doesn’t matter all that much but still:
I pre-ordered in mid May as soon as I heard about it, and since then it’s been months of nearly everyone on the Internet having already read it, then later pre-order prices (barely relevant) were lowered which seems a bit backwards, and now that it’s been ‘out’, I still don’t have the book (or even estimated shipping—from Amazon, Germany) while everyone else who hadn’t posted about it has now been posting reviews etc.
This is kind of annoying, as I’m not reading any of the commentary now—reading the book firsthand when I’ve already pre-ordered it would seem to make more sense, but by the time I even get it, It’d be far after most of the initial conversation happened so at this point I’m having a worse experience for having pre-ordered it.
Again, that experience is not that important, I’ve benefited a lot from Eliezer’s other writting before etc. but it’s disappointing enough to vent in at least one comment before taking the L and moving on.
I pre-ordered in mid May as soon as I heard about it, and since then it’s been months of nearly everyone on the Internet having already read it
Wait what? I don’t think almost anyone got to read it before it came out. My model is maybe a total of like 50 pre-order copies were sent out. Maybe 100? Definitely not anything close to “nearly everyone on the internet”.
This from June lists a lot of people who have read it, including Stephen Fry, Grimes, professors etc. Seperately on Twitter seemingly anyone who was someone in the scene had given their opinion after having read it.
Any thread from the first announcement onward had people saying they’ve read it already. From the same thread (and that was early on)
Many people (like >100 is my guess), with many different view points, have read the book and offered comments.
Note that IFP (a DC-based think tank) recently had someone deliver 535 copies of their new book to every US Congressional office.
More endorsements and there’s also a lot of twitter personalities that had mentioned reading it, which I wont hunt. It definitely felt like a lot more than 50. I’m not arguing it’s a bad or good strategy, just that it’s felt a bit off to wait for months for a ‘pre-order’ when anyone who I might see on Twitter and would’ve been interested to have read it already has.
I am in the same situation as you (pre-ordered from Germany, no delivery date yet). In the mean time I have just listened to the audio book on Spotify.
While I mostly did it out of support and reducing x-risk, pre-ordering “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” has been one of the more frustrating book order experiences I’ve had. The main purpose of the order looks to be successful enough and the actual book experience doesn’t matter all that much but still:
I pre-ordered in mid May as soon as I heard about it, and since then it’s been months of nearly everyone on the Internet having already read it, then later pre-order prices (barely relevant) were lowered which seems a bit backwards, and now that it’s been ‘out’, I still don’t have the book (or even estimated shipping—from Amazon, Germany) while everyone else who hadn’t posted about it has now been posting reviews etc.
This is kind of annoying, as I’m not reading any of the commentary now—reading the book firsthand when I’ve already pre-ordered it would seem to make more sense, but by the time I even get it, It’d be far after most of the initial conversation happened so at this point I’m having a worse experience for having pre-ordered it.
Again, that experience is not that important, I’ve benefited a lot from Eliezer’s other writting before etc. but it’s disappointing enough to vent in at least one comment before taking the L and moving on.
Can’t you pirate the ebook? Seems fine if you’ve already paid for it.
Wait what? I don’t think almost anyone got to read it before it came out. My model is maybe a total of like 50 pre-order copies were sent out. Maybe 100? Definitely not anything close to “nearly everyone on the internet”.
This from June lists a lot of people who have read it, including Stephen Fry, Grimes, professors etc. Seperately on Twitter seemingly anyone who was someone in the scene had given their opinion after having read it.
Any thread from the first announcement onward had people saying they’ve read it already. From the same thread (and that was early on)
More endorsements and there’s also a lot of twitter personalities that had mentioned reading it, which I wont hunt. It definitely felt like a lot more than 50. I’m not arguing it’s a bad or good strategy, just that it’s felt a bit off to wait for months for a ‘pre-order’ when anyone who I might see on Twitter and would’ve been interested to have read it already has.
Almost no one I know who wasn’t working directly with MIRI on the book launch had read it, so it certainly didn’t feel that way for me!
Around 100 seems vaguely right to me (if you count people working on the launch), though this quote was still an update for me!
I am in the same situation as you (pre-ordered from Germany, no delivery date yet). In the mean time I have just listened to the audio book on Spotify.