There was talk on another thread about members sharing their expertise so this is my attempt to do this even tho I’m probably too late to the party:
What this book cover tells me, no screams at me, is that this self-published author is above listening to advice of others or accepting offers of help. This probably means collaboration is off the table, too. They like to work in their own self-absorbed bubble of “genius” and much too readily pass off or ignore other’s work or data that doesn’t fit their own working narrative. Professional standards don’t apply to them.
Alternative interpretation is that the book is meant to look this way because it is targeted to people that don’t regularly read books and are doing so only because they are in a desperate situation.
Well, given that I have collaborated with him and know many other people who have, that those books were written modified after advice I and others have given (and that all the books on that page were collaborations with at least one other author, some two or more), your first interpretation is incorrect.
And given the content of the books, which in most cases seemed to me (having read them) to be aimed at medical professionals or biochemists, your alternative interpretation is also incorrect.
Therefore I would advise that you reconsider your habit of judging not only a book but its author’s personality by the book’s cover.
My comments weren’t meant as judgements. They were what I read off the look of the cover. They were also meant to be helpful. That cover will turn away potential readers.
I’m not a word person so I apologize if my criticism came across as too harsh. (I’m used to working with word people who translate my words for me.) It wasn’t the personality of the author I was describing, but the my expectations of what I would find inside the book.
As for “It wasn’t the personality of the author I was describing,” what else is “What this book cover tells me, no screams at me, is that this self-published author is above listening to advice of others or accepting offers of help. This probably means collaboration is off the table, too. They like to work in their own self-absorbed bubble of “genius” and much too readily pass off or ignore other’s work or data that doesn’t fit their own working narrative. Professional standards don’t apply to them.” ?
I will try again although since you just went thru and downvoted every one of my posts I question your maturity level and your ability to understand what I’m saying. (That is considered bad form here at LW btw. )
When we look at an image we receive and process information immediately—or at least at a speed at which we are not consciously aware of. There is no particular order. It happens all at once. It is not linear. All sorts of assumptions will be formed. Reactions too. The stronger reactions will overwhelm the reasonable ones. I am trained to understand visual signals. I could have just written: “Professional standards were not important to the producer/s of the book which would lead the suspected reader to believe that the lack of professional standards applied to the research presented as well.” but that would have only been a fraction of what I “read” from that cover. I was personally offended. The most offensive reaction coming first as that was the strongest. Then I was able to calm down and offer something reasonable. Try reading my comment backwards. I could have eliminated the offensive speculation in my interpretation. I took a risk at including it as it makes me look silly. But I did because without it there didn’t seem a point in commenting at all.
I will just point out here that:
You still haven’t explained what caused this completely insane over-reaction that led you to judge not a book by its cover but the personality of the author based on a thumbnail of the cover, despite claiming you ‘want to help’.
You have made a further, equally unwarranted assumption here. I didn’t go through and downvote every one of your posts. Multiple people have downvoted your posts in this thread, and any one of them could have done so. Or it could just be that a lot of people find your posts downvote-worthy. Or you could easily be lying. I am not, incidentally, the person who downvoted the post to which I’m replying (which stands at −1 as I type, and if you doubt this I will gladly prove it to you by doing so.
You made very, very serious allegations against the professional ethics of multiple people (because as I pointed out, all those books were written by multiple authors, despite your expert opinion on the covers leading you to think they were written by someone incapable of collaboration. Clearly your expert knowledge of the covers didn’t go so far as looking at the bits where the authors were listed).
As for the last:
“I could have eliminated the offensive speculation in my interpretation. I took a risk at including it as it makes me look silly. But I did because without it there didn’t seem a point in commenting at all.”
Quite. So you’d rather ‘look silly’ by speculating offensively about people and subjects you know less than nothing about, because if you didn’t do so there would be no point in commenting. In which case I’d suggest just not commenting unless you have something worthwhile to say.
Well possibly if instead of just posting a list of (as it turns out) utterly inaccurate and incredibly insulting speculation about the personal character of a close relative of mine, you’d actually said what, specifically, you found problematic about the cover (or even which of the several linked books you were talking about), it might have had some use.
Saying “that cover will turn away potential readers” is not helpful unless accompanied by suggestions as to what to change.
There was talk on another thread about members sharing their expertise so this is my attempt to do this even tho I’m probably too late to the party:
What this book cover tells me, no screams at me, is that this self-published author is above listening to advice of others or accepting offers of help. This probably means collaboration is off the table, too. They like to work in their own self-absorbed bubble of “genius” and much too readily pass off or ignore other’s work or data that doesn’t fit their own working narrative. Professional standards don’t apply to them.
Alternative interpretation is that the book is meant to look this way because it is targeted to people that don’t regularly read books and are doing so only because they are in a desperate situation.
Well, given that I have collaborated with him and know many other people who have, that those books were written modified after advice I and others have given (and that all the books on that page were collaborations with at least one other author, some two or more), your first interpretation is incorrect.
And given the content of the books, which in most cases seemed to me (having read them) to be aimed at medical professionals or biochemists, your alternative interpretation is also incorrect.
Therefore I would advise that you reconsider your habit of judging not only a book but its author’s personality by the book’s cover.
My comments weren’t meant as judgements. They were what I read off the look of the cover. They were also meant to be helpful. That cover will turn away potential readers.
I’m not a word person so I apologize if my criticism came across as too harsh. (I’m used to working with word people who translate my words for me.) It wasn’t the personality of the author I was describing, but the my expectations of what I would find inside the book.
As for “It wasn’t the personality of the author I was describing,” what else is “What this book cover tells me, no screams at me, is that this self-published author is above listening to advice of others or accepting offers of help. This probably means collaboration is off the table, too. They like to work in their own self-absorbed bubble of “genius” and much too readily pass off or ignore other’s work or data that doesn’t fit their own working narrative. Professional standards don’t apply to them.” ?
I will try again although since you just went thru and downvoted every one of my posts I question your maturity level and your ability to understand what I’m saying. (That is considered bad form here at LW btw. )
When we look at an image we receive and process information immediately—or at least at a speed at which we are not consciously aware of. There is no particular order. It happens all at once. It is not linear. All sorts of assumptions will be formed. Reactions too. The stronger reactions will overwhelm the reasonable ones. I am trained to understand visual signals. I could have just written: “Professional standards were not important to the producer/s of the book which would lead the suspected reader to believe that the lack of professional standards applied to the research presented as well.” but that would have only been a fraction of what I “read” from that cover. I was personally offended. The most offensive reaction coming first as that was the strongest. Then I was able to calm down and offer something reasonable. Try reading my comment backwards. I could have eliminated the offensive speculation in my interpretation. I took a risk at including it as it makes me look silly. But I did because without it there didn’t seem a point in commenting at all.
I will just point out here that: You still haven’t explained what caused this completely insane over-reaction that led you to judge not a book by its cover but the personality of the author based on a thumbnail of the cover, despite claiming you ‘want to help’.
You have made a further, equally unwarranted assumption here. I didn’t go through and downvote every one of your posts. Multiple people have downvoted your posts in this thread, and any one of them could have done so. Or it could just be that a lot of people find your posts downvote-worthy. Or you could easily be lying. I am not, incidentally, the person who downvoted the post to which I’m replying (which stands at −1 as I type, and if you doubt this I will gladly prove it to you by doing so.
You made very, very serious allegations against the professional ethics of multiple people (because as I pointed out, all those books were written by multiple authors, despite your expert opinion on the covers leading you to think they were written by someone incapable of collaboration. Clearly your expert knowledge of the covers didn’t go so far as looking at the bits where the authors were listed).
As for the last:
“I could have eliminated the offensive speculation in my interpretation. I took a risk at including it as it makes me look silly. But I did because without it there didn’t seem a point in commenting at all.”
Quite. So you’d rather ‘look silly’ by speculating offensively about people and subjects you know less than nothing about, because if you didn’t do so there would be no point in commenting. In which case I’d suggest just not commenting unless you have something worthwhile to say.
Point taken.
Apologies to all involved, especially to DanArmak for muddying up his post.
I’d be happy to delete any comments that came across as offensive.
Well possibly if instead of just posting a list of (as it turns out) utterly inaccurate and incredibly insulting speculation about the personal character of a close relative of mine, you’d actually said what, specifically, you found problematic about the cover (or even which of the several linked books you were talking about), it might have had some use.
Saying “that cover will turn away potential readers” is not helpful unless accompanied by suggestions as to what to change.