Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

abooklikefoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 264 posts

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#31

Post by gcatalfamo »

isogon wrote: post #28
gcatalfamo wrote: post #26

I think there is a genuine need for escaping echo chambers but every attempt is usually aimed just showing the opposite side/narrative. If I am conservative I won’t be open to be shown the most leftist content, and viceversa, while instead I might be open to be shown more balanced views that might gradually carry me out of my echo chamber instead of reinforcing it. edit: this an OT comment more related to the echo ch…

My own experience is that it works quite well for a certain kind of person: on Reddit I was simultaneously subbed to /r/The_Donald, /r/politics, /r/ChapoTrapHouse, /r/Libertarian, etc (while those were still around). I'd also drop by voat occasionally to get my weekly sample of virulently antisemitic takes. I think looking at extremes is the most realistic path. Purportedly balanced sources are dangerous because thei…

My experience is surely anecdotal, but I feel your POV applies more to open minded people, while close minded people are more inclined to feel threatened by opposite perspectives.

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#32

Post by Kye »

pjc50 wrote: post #27
Kye wrote: post #19

I tried three authors: Mary E. Lowd Kyell Gold / Tim Susman Rukis Croax Does this database not have books from small/independent publishers? edit: One of Kyell Gold's books pops up when I type his name in search after I clicked one of the examples. Still nothing on the others.

I think that community is too small to even count as a bubble.

Furries have lots of bubbles. Some they bring with them, some they make inside the community.

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#33

Post by postingpals »

Rumperuu wrote: post #25

Very interesting—I certainly wouldn't have expected the antithesis of Mein Kampf and Revolt Against the Modern World to be Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking . Honourable mentions include the Bible (NIV) and The C Programming Language .

I made this point elsewhere, but honestly I think if a fascist reads Salt Fat Acid Heat (a book made by a woman, btw) they will probably become a little more in touch with reality.

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#34

Post by gcatalfamo »

postingpals wrote: post #30
gcatalfamo wrote: post #26

I think there is a genuine need for escaping echo chambers but every attempt is usually aimed just showing the opposite side/narrative. If I am conservative I won’t be open to be shown the most leftist content, and viceversa, while instead I might be open to be shown more balanced views that might gradually carry me out of my echo chamber instead of reinforcing it. edit: this an OT comment more related to the echo ch…

Actually this tool seems to solve that problem by showing you multiple books, and not just direct opposites in terms of content. If you don't believe me search for 'Mein Kampf' and something similar, it doesn't spit out books you would consider opponents of Hitler's worldview necessarily. Now whether the books it spits out are even going to help you break out of your worldview, who knows, but I'm sure reading Shakesp…

you're right, I edited my comment to reflect I was being slightly OT.

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#35

Post by fouc »

isogon wrote: post #28
gcatalfamo wrote: post #26

I think there is a genuine need for escaping echo chambers but every attempt is usually aimed just showing the opposite side/narrative. If I am conservative I won’t be open to be shown the most leftist content, and viceversa, while instead I might be open to be shown more balanced views that might gradually carry me out of my echo chamber instead of reinforcing it. edit: this an OT comment more related to the echo ch…

My own experience is that it works quite well for a certain kind of person: on Reddit I was simultaneously subbed to /r/The_Donald, /r/politics, /r/ChapoTrapHouse, /r/Libertarian, etc (while those were still around). I'd also drop by voat occasionally to get my weekly sample of virulently antisemitic takes. I think looking at extremes is the most realistic path. Purportedly balanced sources are dangerous because thei…

That's an interesting idea! I could see it being good training for simultaneously holding two opposing thoughts in your head at any given time.

What do you hope to gain out of going to the effort of consuming media like this? Why not just go on an information diet altogether?

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#37

Post by k1m »

padolsey wrote: post #2

Hi HN. I made a tool that allows you to discover what books you are least likely to have come across or enjoyed, but are nonetheless highly rated. These books will likely challenge you if you tend to read quite narrowly. Briefly, for each book entered we find the rarest but highest rated intersections and provide those to you. The query can be summarised as: which highly rated books are least read (and enjoyed) by pe…

Very nice! Liked seeing Chomsky, Fromm, Tolle and Postman when I clicked the "software engineering" link. Will check out some of the other recommendations.

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#38

Post by frogulis »

padolsey wrote: post #22
sol_invictus wrote: post #20

Put some of my own favourite books (maths, business and Japanese fiction) onto the engine and got recommended african-american and feminist literature (and a cookbook.) Then I sampled three of these recommendations and put them into the engine (Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou and Carol Anderson) and again got recommended feminist, african-american and anti-capitalist literature. One does not simply escape the leftis…

Indeed. It's a real struggle as the nature of how this operates on intersections ("people who like Foo also like Baz") mean that escaping a "bubble" really just means moving to its fringes. The more inward and consolidated a bubble is, the harder it will be to escape it (with the current approach) because there'll be almost no intersections that reach beyond its borders. :/ And grabbing random books from beyond its b…

Ah, that might explain some strange behaviour I had. I entered a few fairly disparate books including "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson and was recommended an Asimov compilation, which is not worlds apart. Though I guess if one iteratively reads at "the fringes" and uses this tool they'll gradually move out of the bubble?

Cool tool though, I think I might try doing just that ^

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#39

Post by Neputys »

padolsey wrote: post #24
Neputys wrote: post #15

This is quite fun actually! Tried different philosopher combinations. Get Alcoholics Anonymous recommendations for quite a few until I add Schopenhauer. And if you are a Rand, Rowling reading techie, apparently, you should read more Eddo-Lodge, Baldwin and Chomsky... Brightened my day, thnx. P.S. Are you sure this thing isn't pushing people from one echo chamber to another?

Glad it's brightened your day! Baldwin is wonderful to experience. Re: moving people from one chamber to another, one hopes that enough chamber-hopping might give people the broad perspective we hope for. Tribal ideology is always a trap but maybe it becomes less tempting as you experience more diverse echo chambers.

If tribal ideology is all you are fighting then maybe. But it's a big maybe. Crap is crap. It will not get any less crappier if you get more diverse crap. If a person is not developing intellectually he'll take on some other BS that will be equally stupid. All effort in vain (unless that was the actual goal all the time).

Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber

#40

Post by pjc50 »

gcatalfamo wrote: post #26

I think there is a genuine need for escaping echo chambers but every attempt is usually aimed just showing the opposite side/narrative. If I am conservative I won’t be open to be shown the most leftist content, and viceversa, while instead I might be open to be shown more balanced views that might gradually carry me out of my echo chamber instead of reinforcing it. edit: this an OT comment more related to the echo ch…

The problem with delusional belief systems is that they tend to be coherent and self-supporting, just not rooted in reality.

Statistical aggregates make this worse. You can argue that on average X is more than Y, or you can cherrypick all the examples where Y is greater than X to make your point.

Post reply on HN