I also think these ebooks/courses people are producing probably contain tons of useful information to the folks that buy them.
There's just something that makes me feel weird about the way these information products are being bandied about to the audience on HN.
This has been done for many many years in many different industries. Notable are people who give seminars on how to make money in real estate. The truth is making money in real estate is much harder then getting a bunch of noobies into a room at the Holiday Inn and selling them information on how to make money in real estate. Not to say though that one of two people who you enlighten in those seminars might make out ok and the rest might have felt they received a days worth of knowledge and entertainment.
I'm in a position where I've been getting (unsolicited) consulting work helping people buy domain names (startups). I enjoy doing it even though the pay makes no sense (for the hours spent) compared to what I can make with what I know doing the same thing on my own account.
That said there is value in these offerings (just like there is value in a "franchise" system that you pay for that tells you what you need to know to open a yogurt store). It took years by the traditional method to learn what I have learned over the years. It would have been much easier if there were books ebooks or otherwise that you could have triangulated the information needed from.
Take a look here: