The AI plot to scan and destroy books (feat. Emanuel Maiberg)

I think a lot of folks don't know that Amazon does on-demand printing.

Can you just tell us a little bit more about when that started and why it's provided? Like the idea that it's cheaper to print a book once the order comes in, like I'm going to like a fast food restaurant is bizarre to me, you know, that we've turned books into that, you know, made to order cookery.

Yeah.

But I'd like to understand more about how that process works.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know actually when it started, but if you think about it, it's just like it's an efficiency thing.

Like the way that it traditionally worked.

If you think about the origins of Amazon, right, which is a company that started by selling books.

Yeah.

They have to order like massive books.

of printed books from a publisher, keep them in a warehouse that you have to pay to maintain.

It has to be temperature controlled and all this stuff.

It's not a cheap thing.

And then as the orders come in, You package them up and send them and then you run out of the stock that you have and you have to bet on what your next order is and try to guess how much inventory you should buy.

And then if you buy too much inventory, you have to get rid of it in a fire sale.

Print-on-demand just cuts all of those problems out of the supply chain.

You have a digital copy.

If somebody wants it, great.

You print it and send it to them on the spot.

You don't have to worry about ordering more copies.

How are you going to store them and all of that? I know that people run into print on demand when it comes to niche subject, right? Like if you think about Twilight or something, that is something that A, people want like hardcovers of.

They collect them.

They like to put them on the shelf.

amazon keeps those books in stock there's no need to do those as print on demand but if you're like an academic and it's a niche subject that people only purchase now and then that's how people usually run into it and those people who run into it have complaints about the quality of the printing and stuff i personally have not used it so i can't speak to it but but but i know that it's like generally considered like a low quality edition of a book is to have it print on demand

I think a lot of folks don't know that Amazon does on-demand printing.

Can you just tell us a little bit more about when that started and why it's provided? Like the idea that it's cheaper to print a book once the order comes in, like I'm going to like a fast food restaurant is bizarre to me, you know, that we've turned books into that, you know, made to order cookery.

Yeah.

But I'd like to understand more about how that process works.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know actually when it started, but if you think about it, it's just like it's an efficiency thing.

Like the way that it traditionally worked.

If you think about the origins of Amazon, right, which is a company that started by selling books.

Yeah.

They have to order like massive books.

of printed books from a publisher, keep them in a warehouse that you have to pay to maintain.

It has to be temperature controlled and all this stuff.

It's not a cheap thing.

And then as the orders come in, You package them up and send them and then you run out of the stock that you have and you have to bet on what your next order is and try to guess how much inventory you should buy.

And then if you buy too much inventory, you have to get rid of it in a fire sale.

Print-on-demand just cuts all of those problems out of the supply chain.

You have a digital copy.

If somebody wants it, great.

You print it and send it to them on the spot.

You don't have to worry about ordering more copies.

How are you going to store them and all of that? I know that people run into print on demand when it comes to niche subject, right? Like if you think about Twilight or something, that is something that A, people want like hardcovers of.

They collect them.

They like to put them on the shelf.

amazon keeps those books in stock there's no need to do those as print on demand but if you're like an academic and it's a niche subject that people only purchase now and then that's how people usually run into it and those people who run into it have complaints about the quality of the printing and stuff i personally have not used it so i can't speak to it but but but i know that it's like generally considered like a low quality edition of a book is to have it print on demand