Am I the only one getting a 403 on the XHR POST?
Ah that may be related to an expired CSRF token. Could you try refreshing? Hope that works!
Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
51–60 of 264 posts
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#52This is a great idea! Thanks for making it. Is there any way you could bring in a synopsis without me having to leave the site? It would be nice to keep browsing there rather than have to link out to Amazon just based on the title and cover.
It's something I'd really like to do yes, though was not sure where to source the synopsis from. I wasn't sure on the copyright ramifications of scraping from the likes of Amazon/Goodreads, and only very few books are listed on public domain sites like wikipedia :/ But I am going to explore this more. Thank you for trying it out -- and glad you liked it!
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Aren't you just subscribing to an USA bubble now? Is there a way to add e.g. chinese, indian or islamic reddits to the mix?
That's true. I should add /r/Sino to that list. I also subscribe to ChinaTalk, but I'm not sure how valuable a it is for really gauging what goes on in that part of the net. Unfortunately, I can't read Chinese, so I have to trust someone to translate and aggregate that content in the end.
I haven't tried anything outside of US, China (these two being the two major geopolitical players), and Russia (because I am from there and understand the language). I would love to expand that list, but my time is limited.
Another factor is that reading American commentary is entertaining because I live here and am immersed in the culture. The same goes for Russia. I haven't been able to make this work with China: there is a mass of cultural material that I'm not "in" on, so it feels much more like work.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#54Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#55Hi 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…
I added a few of my favorite books (mostly 20th century lit) and depending on the set got mostly children's books or non-English books. Not terribly helpful.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#56I 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…
Balanced sources tend to give you what the extremes don't, which is nuance.
Does your approach not gloss over the nuance? Or are you able to surface the complexities of a given topic simply by examining the extremes?
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#57Hi 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…
I added a few of my favorite books (mostly 20th century lit) and depending on the set got mostly children's books or non-English books. Not terribly helpful.
I added Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel and Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West -- not because I like them but rather because I was curious what would come up as result --, it showed me mostly religious books as suggestion (He Chose the Nails: What God Did to Win Your Heart) and The C Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I think it is valuable to read a hundred convincingly-written arguments in favor of one point of view, become convinced, and then read a hundred opposing arguments and again become convinced. This maintains my awareness of the fact that I'm a terrible judge of veracity of arguments. Since I want to know what happens in the world, I must be exposed to arguments, so I think it's very important to be viscerally aware that I'm an idiot and should use a lot of care.
As for why I want to know what happens in the world and particularly where I live (i.e. North America), it is because those events affect me. If I were on an information diet, then I would probably miss, for example, the recent passing of S.386 [0] by the US Senate, which is intimately relevant to me as my long-term goal is to immigrate to the US.
[0] https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/386...
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#59Hi 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…
Seems like a cool idea! Did you think about referral sales (Amazon Associates) as a way to fund the project instead of Patreon?
I have no affiliation or experience with either, just genuinely curious if you chose one over the other. Affiliate sales seems like a good fit for this kind of service.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#60Me: The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Dune
First result: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
Not sure what to make of that...