I used to be very into photography before Instagram and smartphones inundated the world with easy acceptably good photos.
I was into DJing when that meant buying vinyl and mastering the difficult art of beatmatching by ear before CDJs made acquiring music trivial and automated beatmatching made mixing easy.
I was a game developer during the time when casual smartphone games came and ate so much time and attention that players had less time available for other games.
I got into making music when that meant fighting with big, slow, complex hardware synthesizers, then watched anyone with a laptop (including me) be able to do all of that a hundred times more easily, and now I watch AI auto-generate passable background music.
Time and time again, I've seen this same process play out.
Many of the deepest joys in my life involved putting deep time and care into making something to share with others. That feels increasingly out of step with the culture at large.
I have self-published a couple of books. I do enjoy writing, but what I enjoy even more is being read. If I honestly felt my books were never going to be seen by anyone, I wouldn't have written them. Providing value to other people was the main source of meaning and joy for me with those projects.
The point is that most of my joy for these activities comes not from the sitting there doing the thing, but from sharing the result with other people. The human connection is the point.
OTOH there are more people than ever earnestly doing all those things. If we take the barrier to entry for publishing being as low as it is as a factor in you and many other professionals having written top quality technical books then I for one am thankful for this process you speak of.
I was into DJing when that meant buying vinyl and mastering the difficult art of beatmatching by ear before CDJs made acquiring music trivial and automated beatmatching made mixing easy.
I was a game developer during the time when casual smartphone games came and ate so much time and attention that players had less time available for other games.
I got into making music when that meant fighting with big, slow, complex hardware synthesizers, then watched anyone with a laptop (including me) be able to do all of that a hundred times more easily, and now I watch AI auto-generate passable background music.
Time and time again, I've seen this same process play out.
Many of the deepest joys in my life involved putting deep time and care into making something to share with others. That feels increasingly out of step with the culture at large.