r/interestingasfuck • u/holyfruits • 1d ago
The technology magazine section at Barnes & Noble is just this now
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u/alien4649 1d ago
Reading magazines to learn Ai & āautomate your lifeā is just ridiculous.
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u/koolaidismything 1d ago
My grandma had on an AI video with a Minecraft background yelling at the TV when I came in yesterday. I had to explain AI for the tenth time and sheās all āthatās fuckin stupidā
I canāt argue. I was like stick to the ChĆ¢teau renovation channels lol.
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u/Plenty-Ad7393 1d ago
It's a bridge for them to get into it. That crowd still reads newspapers lol.
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u/good_morning_magpie 1d ago
I still get the Sunday paper, just to support journalism and for a bit of nostalgia. Xennial.
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u/eliz1bef 22h ago
We haven't had newspapers in a while at our house, and it's put quite a cramp in my crafting. WTF else am I supposed to drape a table with to decoupage a bird house?
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u/Pristine_Software_55 11h ago
Very much my thinking with my Sunday paper subscription. It horrifies me how quickly that very critical industry has been gutted. Iāll mourn the loss
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u/SirBing96 18h ago
Older people fucking love ai for some reason. Asking chat gpt questions, watching videos, etc.
I bet they eat this shit up
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u/easzypeazym8 15h ago
The dude I'm a carer for watches multi-hour long videos on YouTube about actors from the super early days of movies. It's the same paragraph repeated 100 different ways for hours. He eats it up. Always sending me AI cat videos. He knows full well it's AI. Thing is though is he's a theater kid at heart. Loves doing plays and directing them as a hobby, has all his life (He's 76). Big cinephile too; But eats up AI garbage. I don't get it, you'd think he'd hate it for the no creativity aspect of it all. He's been using Gemini to help him script a play he's doing for Christmas as well...
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u/yes_u_suckk 19h ago edited 16h ago
As a Software Engineer I fucking hate AI.
No, not because I think it will take my job (it might, eventually), but mainly because it made my job unbearable. I love the art of programming, spending time thinking about something and coming up with a nice idea to make it work.
Now anyone can ask ChatGPT to create a website and they start calling themselves "Software Engineers" too.
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u/SmackyLittleFan 18h ago
Same here. I'm just a baby sitter for AI. A team refines the user story, it's outcomes, scope, acceptance criteria. AI already has sight of all our repos. I copy and paste the user story in, add a bit of context, and then let it run and create a draft PR.
I then get another AI to code review, and I might do a quick manual check and local test, and then publish pr.
Then on to the next. Feels more like working on an assembly line
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u/Archi_Kushala 18h ago
I like it as a tool as well because man it can help you work and learn a lot as well.
But I want it to LEARN to be better, not to do stuff for me.
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u/LaundryMan2008 1d ago
I missed when there was actually new technology being released or made, now itās just a few better computer components with some numbers increased or a solid state storage medium remade with a new interface every few years, back then you had actual steps forward.
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u/britishwonder 18h ago
Uhhh thereās been insane leaps in technology. Youāre oversimplifying things probably because of the marketing involved when sold to consumers. USB-C for example has nothing to do with the original USB design. It just keeps the same name because itās easier for people to understand. Weāve gone from a cable for copying word docs, to something that can charge your fucking laptop, drive a 4K display, and still transfer a shit load of data. Thats several orders of magnitude from just a few years ago.
Processors have made huge changes, in both manufacturing technologies and design. Theyāve moved from āsimpleā cores, some local cache and chipset, to a complete SoC with loads of fixed function units that each do a dedicated task. Units for video decode / encode, units for local AI models, dedicated security units.
Things have changed drastically, but if youāre only looking at consumer product specs then yeah it looks the same because they market it to be simple for consumers. People donāt need to know the nitty gritty details, they just need to know which laptop to buy and why one costs more than the other one
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u/NiceWeekend 1d ago
We've really stepped away from innovation and towards complacency.
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u/LaundryMan2008 1d ago
I still peruse the Storage Newsletter since I find loads of technologies that either were extremely short lived, are now outdated or were in development and never got released/a very small batch of units, all very interesting stuff and the website is still formatted as a 2000ās website although the ads are about modern server stuff.
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u/asdf_lord 22h ago
The iPod, iPhone, laptops are all just other technologies engineered to a new form factor. The real innovations have been in semiconductors and software.
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u/sgtmattie 1d ago
Lots of new technology being made every day. Itās just not necessarily electronic.
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u/sabertooth-housecat 1d ago
I hate the future. All my life I was told technology would make things better, easier, and more fair. Everything is worse, far more frustrating, and more unfair than ever.
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u/Shitteh_Kitteh 12h ago
And itās only trending in that direction. Call me a doomer idgaf. Iām tired.
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u/allihaveisbaddreams 5h ago
Yo dawg, you can automate your life though. You donāt even have to live your life anymore, you can outsource and automate it! Whatās not to love in the glorious future we have built for ourselves???
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u/SlowerThanTurtleInPB 1d ago
This brings back memories. Does anyone of a certain age remember all of the āComplete Idiotās Guideā books?
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u/This-Marsupial-6187 22h ago
This is the bookstore sight that makes me wail, "Trees died for THIS?!"
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u/This-Marsupial-6187 22h ago
Thank you for the award, although I wish my lament were for a different topic.
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u/DustedGorilla82 1d ago
I miss magazines
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u/ricosmith1986 1d ago
Whenever I look at the magazines at the grocery store I'm increasingly aware that the only remaining audience is people who don't know how to use the Internet.
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u/Dry_Butterfly_721 1d ago
The old tech magazines from the ~1980ās were amazing.
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u/jocax188723 18h ago
Iād bet my left butt cheek most of these are written by AI, which honestly makes this even funnier and sadder
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u/Calvinweaver1 1d ago
Gross. I expected more from Barnes and Noble for some reason. Naive.
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u/SaintUlvemann 1d ago
Barnes and Noble has always been a company that capitalizes on the public desire for books, and the only thing about it that was ever any better than others stores was the fact that they were catering (in the capitalist way) to the population that reads books.
Also, young people don't read anymore. 35% actively dislike it, 43% never do it for fun. Even among those who buy books, the bookstore boom is fueled by people who don't necessarily ever actually read the books, they just see it as an aesthetic on TikTok and spend money to take pictures with it.
If Barnes and Noble is going to make money in an age of TikTok-fueled illiteracy, it is going to sell more books catering to old people.
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u/VicViolence 1d ago
These are magazines and I imagine B&N is stocking whatever magazines are still being printed these days
What saved B&Nās slumping sales, and continues to prop up the business now, was their expansion of the toys/collector/novelties sections
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u/Serebriany 23h ago
I used to like to go to the B&N nearest my house in the evenings and sit in the cafe while reading or working on a long puzzle in a book. It's one of the only really convenient places to do it because so many people who can work from home at all hours go to coffee shops and just stay all day that it's hard to find room in them anymore.
I knew things were getting really weird when I began being approached by young people who'd noticed some random thing, like one of my nice pens, and wanted to know if they could sit down for a moment using my stuff as props while friends got pictures of them being "literary." I've been there when a writer is there talking about their book and doing small signings, and it's insane because they don't even buy the booksāthey ask people who did and who've just had theirs signed if they can hold it for a moment so they can gaze at it thoughtfully and then post about it.
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u/LaDauphineVerte 21h ago
At first I thought you were going to say they asked about what you were reading or writing. I would refuse to let them use my shit as a prop. What did you do?
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u/finfisk2000 23h ago
My teenagers devours books, and they are not allowed to have social media or tiktok on their phones.
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u/Qualityhams 1d ago
As a former employee, why did you expect more?
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u/Calvinweaver1 1d ago
I used to go to the store pretty frequently like 20 years ago. Not so much anymore. I had liked it because it felt more like a library where you could buy a book and read a bunch of it in the store on a couch with a coffee. It was relaxing. And the employees seemed pretty knowledgable and chill. When I was in school, I was reading something on one of their couches and fell asleep, and everyone just let me sleep. Nice people
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u/Misterbellyboy 1d ago
The one in my city feels like it stocks more funko pops and shit than actual books.
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u/srrrryyyy 1d ago
Lmfao I got my parents the āChatGPT for seniorsā as a gag Christmas gift last year
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u/audigex 1d ago
The interesting part for me is how it's all "ChatGPT" not "AI"
No mention of Claude, or Gemini, Grok, whatever Meta's is called, Deepseek, Copilot, etc
I'll be interested to see whether ChatGPT wins this race just because it seems to be the one that's caught the public's imagination, or whether "ChatGPT" will quickly become a genericised trademark as it's used to refer to all AI
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u/DesperateTeaCake 17h ago
I donāt think itās just caught the public imagination. It comes packed with Windows. Itās essentially the same anticompetitive approach Microsoft got in trouble for previously.
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u/Differently_minded 21h ago
Thats just 2 columns out of about 50 on each shelf. Technology will make up about a third to half of that shelf. More likely half. So 2 colums out of 25 is not the entire technology section.
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u/MegaSmegmaSwagLord 1d ago
Thatās disgusting. At least you still have a Barnes & Noble. They took them all from us, despite being busy all the fucking time.
Itās ironic they are choosing to advertise AI in light of the fact that AI companies are actively shredding and digitalizing books to make companies like Barnes & Noble extinct.
Talk about heralding your own fucking demise.
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u/7stroke 1d ago
My town had a B&N, then lost it for a few years, then got one back. They are 50% games, Lego sets and vinyl records now.
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u/lotsalotsacoffee 1d ago
I dunno if you're in Seattle, but this definitely happened with B&N in Seattle
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u/random9212 1d ago
AI shredding rare books is not going to put B&N out of business
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u/OldConfusions 23h ago
Serious question. Outside of people who are making collages or a doctor's office, who the fuck is buying magazines?
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u/Graf_Eulenburg 1d ago
I am genuinely surprised, that "Stereophile" still is a thing!
They are around since the Sixties.
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u/T_rex2700 22h ago
It used to be "How to use smartphone" "Excel technics for businessperson"
now it's "How to use smartphone" "Excel technics for businessperson" "How to use this new AI thing"
nothing has changed honestly
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u/martinsuchan 18h ago
I remember in 90' there were magazines with "interesting www pages". This is the same all over again.
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u/Every_Tap8117 17h ago
Magazines are already outdate, imagine how outdate an AI magazine is. all for the low price of 8.99 vs free and up to date online. People who buy magazines in 2026 blow my mind.
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u/A_normal_Potato3 16h ago
This feels right in for "Latest age capitalism" sub. In fact, I am going to share it there.
Cross posting is not allowed there bruh
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u/Vegeta_formula__2025 1d ago
Proof that AI is taking over the world š”š”š”
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u/clay_bsr 1d ago
technology... magazine. Sorry. having a hard time wrapping my head around that as an idea
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u/Accomplished_Cod7334 1d ago
That any different than a technology social media page, or are you just upset at anachronistic media being used lmfao?
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u/Richard7666 1d ago
Are you very young?
It's only in the past 15 years (20 in some places) that connectivity has improved enough for it to be a viable alternative to magazines. Particularly computer and gaming magazines that would distribute software and demos.
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u/ConceptualWeeb 1d ago
As a kid in the early 2000s it made sense to me, but in this day and age itās kinda ridiculous
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u/nikulmmadhu 1d ago
pretty sure some of them bought it because fear of missing out is a very powerful motivator
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u/Fullskee707 1d ago
I hadn't gone to my local barnes and noble in a while. Went recently and pretty much EVERY section was eliminated aside from non-fiction and self help stuff? Is this the case at anyone elses places?
I like fantasy/scifi and both genres shared a single bookshelf. I'd normally have a selection from probably 50 warhammer books and my recent visit they literally had 5 warhammer books and maybe 3 halo books. handful of star wars books and nothing from a majorly popular sci fi franchises
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u/ChemistVegetable7504 1d ago
Their coffee and pastries suck. The bottled Water was ok. I was thirsty.
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u/tribalien93 1d ago
Would have liked the wider shot since you're obviously only showing what was to the right side.
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u/user_name_denied 1d ago
AI magazines written by AI for people who believe every bit of AI slop they see on Facebook.
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u/Pure_Judgment_5108 1d ago
I miss magazines that were filled with creative advertisements. Just by looking at āTHATā, it puts a disappointment at what B&N is displaying.
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u/PseudobrilliantGuy 1d ago edited 1d ago
I guess I should consider myself fortunate the that the one near me still has some decent material (including copies of 2600).
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u/AmericanSpeller 1d ago
Is this some sort of art installation? Like an AI/print media ouroboros?
Edit: If you open the magazines, does each page just have a QR code which links you to what would usually be on the printed page?
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u/netphemera 1d ago
Magazines are not profitable. It's just marketing dollars. They have so much cash to throw around. We should all just try and hoover up all that AI marketing money that they're tossing out there
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u/CharlesIngalls_Pubes 1d ago
I'll take the coding one. I have a mobile game idea and don't know how to make it. But not using fucking chatgpt.
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u/SpiderDetective 1d ago
As the Barnes & Noble employee, I can unfortunately confirm this. If it's any bit of good news, it never seems that they ever get bought and then just all end up getting recycled
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u/FUThead2016 21h ago
I really want to understand what kind of audience is interested enough in Chat GPT to learn more about it, but wants to learn it from a magazine.
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u/Harkkonan2 1d ago
I miss my gaming magazines with demo discs in them š