Live data from Hacker News

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

abooklikefoo.com

91–100 of 264 posts

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

#91

This site always works well for me to broaden my literary horizon: https://www.literature-map.com I found some of my all time favorite authors this way.

That looks like a cool tool (would be cooler if it didn't start freezing up after 15 seconds). But I have a complaint, how is Bill Nye on the same tree as Richard Feynman?

https://www.literature-map.com/richard+feynman

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

#92
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Averages are one kind of truth though, and if your worldview is based on averages it has some amount of accuracy to it. The trick is that there are more averages than just the mean, such as standard deviation, so to have a correct view you must care about all averages.

> Averages are one kind of truth though, and if your worldview is based on averages it has some amount of accuracy to it.

I think that is a fallacy. Just because some standpoint is in between two other standpoints, does not make it correct. Each side might look at some facts from a different perspective and might be correct but at the same time contradicting (at least at the first glance), but the 'average' could still be wrong.

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

#93
I think it works: I put in "Zero to One", "The Idea Factory" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" -- one of the top results was "We Are Never Meeting in Real Life." This was reviewed on Amazon as "Not For a White Male Forty-Year-Old Software Engineer."

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1WB4G83DRI8PV/re...

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

#94

Now I am very confused. In theory it sounds like a very good idea. But when I tried this site what I got is a lot of books about religion. And I don't want to know anything about religion. I just can't bring myself to have intellectual respect for it. "Open your mind" can be healthy if you are stuck in dumbness but can be a bad advice if you have sound and valid core beliefs as in "a mind too open doesn't hold anythi…

You need to find opposing views that are just on the edge of your current comfort zone, I think. Of course, the whole exercise of having an open mind doesn’t reward one that much, as having a sound worldview has diminishing returns.

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

#95
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people call stuff they dont like "delusional belief systems" while ignoring the truths, even if nuggets, behind those systems...

I don't know man? People don't like, a lot of things, they don't call them delusional. We call things delusional because they are, in fact, delusional. What makes it dangerous is that people deeply believe that their delusions are "truth". Belief to the point of fundamentalism, where they will kill non-believers in their delusions.

Naturally you can’t refute the claim that your stated belief there is delusional.

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

#96

Now I am very confused. In theory it sounds like a very good idea. But when I tried this site what I got is a lot of books about religion. And I don't want to know anything about religion. I just can't bring myself to have intellectual respect for it. "Open your mind" can be healthy if you are stuck in dumbness but can be a bad advice if you have sound and valid core beliefs as in "a mind too open doesn't hold anythi…

The OP states elsewhere in the discussion:

>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.

I think this is a natural result of the system as designed. There may be some value in understanding what other people like, even if you don't enjoy it yourself. Personally, I wouldn't buy any (or even check out from the library) 95% of the books it listed for me, but I think that means it is working correctly. I guess one issue is that it I really like non-fiction, so I get mostly fiction or personal memoirs -- it's a genre thing that has nothing to do with viewpoint.

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

#98
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Lots of people call stuff they dont like "delusional belief systems" while ignoring the truths, even if nuggets, behind those systems...

But don’t confuse that tendency with the idea that there are no delusional belief systems.

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

#99
post #72

I'll give you this, I had no idea how much Christian self-help literature I was missing out on.

I’ve pretty actively read stuff in that vein for years trying to connect the religious tie to right in America. It’s fascinating

How familiar are you with religious-right people in real life? I can't stand reading about it b/c I grew up in the thick of it: brings back bad memories.

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

#100

Now I am very confused. In theory it sounds like a very good idea. But when I tried this site what I got is a lot of books about religion. And I don't want to know anything about religion. I just can't bring myself to have intellectual respect for it. "Open your mind" can be healthy if you are stuck in dumbness but can be a bad advice if you have sound and valid core beliefs as in "a mind too open doesn't hold anythi…

Wow this is some impressive "you should open your mind, provided you disagree with me."

The whole point of this is to show you stuff you wouldn't normally read. You don't need to have "intellectual respect" (whatever that means) for a topic to read a book about it.

Post reply on HN