Fundamental limitation of top down classification systems like Dewey Decimal. A graph would solve this, but how do you lay out a physical library like Meta’s social graph databases?
It’s interesting to me, having looked at those archival collections, that NW never wrote back and also, I’m looking at different library systems, that his book was classified several different ways.
And which category did they choose I wonder? Or did they create a new category for it! Indeed, it looks like it got its own new shiny one! https://www.librarything.com/mds/001.53
The Wikipedia page summerizes it pretty well "The book combines the cognitive behavioral technique of teaching an individual how to regulate self-concept,..."
Interesting ideas but unfortunately, modern popular practitioners drift into crackpot/selfhelp guru land.
Maybe I’m being dismissive, but it doesn’t seem to really get at much more than “visualize success,” it just uses then-fashionable terminology about feedback loops to make it seem fresh. But perhaps I’m harsh. :)
In the 50's it was a novel concept. I don't think you're being harsh. The modern, detached from its source, over simplified dilution to make a quick buck iteration has earned its disrespect.
My sense is it’s a bit of pop psychology cashing in on Cybernetics the way many airplane books today promise that our lives can be improved by thinking of ourselves as large language models… there’s *maybe* two references to Wiener and the rest is the guy’s own ideas.
Psycho Cybernetics is basically a self-help book pressed from the pulp of blending early silicon valley language with west coast new age grifters and 70s hippie commodification. It’s a pretty funny read from a meta perspective though and tbh it really illustrates how far Weiner’s ideas permeated.
My minor in college was in Cybernetic Systems. I can confirm hierarchical classifiers were still confounded decades after this classic letter. Same with other academic programs. Too meta.
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Interesting ideas but unfortunately, modern popular practitioners drift into crackpot/selfhelp guru land.