True software engineers don't read the US Constitution.
Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
121–130 of 264 posts
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#122I 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…
It seems like no matter what books I key off of, the results appear to be pretty nuanced and not even necessarily absolutely opposing. This is really cool.
I think part of the problem with just swinging to the absolute other end is, unless you're just interested in psychology, reading the "other side" is only of real value if you're reading quality, or at least good arguments made in good faith.
At the extremes there seems to be a much higher tendency for the authors themselves to be deep in the echo chambers of their respective ideologies, as well as a higher likelyhood that its target audience is more forgiving of poor content as long as it hits close enough to the mark. Blindly selecting content by a strict point of view would seem to result in lower value overall.
Not to say there isn't good reading out there in the extremes, but the level of chaff to sort through to find a decent seed is just too damn high.
The value is ultimately in finding good content and not just an opposing point of view. Whenever I can find both at the same time, those are the real keepers.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#123I put in The Foundation by Isaac Asimov, The Test of the Twins by Margaret Weis, and On Libert by Mills. I got back a collection of literature by women of color and books about colonialism. I had no idea my book preferences were so conservative.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#124Apparently I don't have a literary bubble, because even with eight books listed it is still recommending books that are high on my list of books that I've read and liked.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#125I put in SevenEves (my favour book) by Neal Stephenson and Leviathan Wakes by JSA Corey and the recommendations include: Game of thrones, Bernard Corwell books Isaac Asimov I've read these and I would put them in the same camp as the input books so I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be doing. Nice idea but, unless I'm missing something, not the expected behaviour. I would more have expected "the old man who c…
Apropro of nothing but started to read Seveneves for the first time this year and had to tap out - decidedly a poor book to read for escapism from being trapped inside while the world burns and people die around you.
Ah man, don't read that book until the pandemic is over and you're in a good place. I encourage you to go back to it when you can though, I love it, the only book I have read twice.
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#126I put in The Foundation by Isaac Asimov, The Test of the Twins by Margaret Weis, and On Libert by Mills. I got back a collection of literature by women of color and books about colonialism. I had no idea my book preferences were so conservative.
I'm not sure it works well for fiction. I put in a few different sets of science fiction works ranging from Heinlein to Atwood and it returns about half comic books, a significant number of fantasy/sci-fi works, and a smatter of other things. Oddly, it includes children's books I've read to my kid.
My bubble very much includes both Dune and The Far Side and I'm not certain how these are supposed to be in different bubbles. Are most Dune readers snobs who wouldn't stoop to reading a cartoon?
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#127"Carl Sagan" Unable to find that title "Demon-Haunted World" Unable to find that title "Richard Dawkins" Unable to find that title "The Selfish Gene" Unable to find that title I think it needs some work.
Maybe you tried it when it was down?
I put "The Selfish Gene" and "The Demon-Haunted World" and I got "Women, Race and Class" by Angela Davis and "The Feynman Lectures".
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#128I 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.
Unfortunately there will be some books missing, either because of lacking data on them or lacking intersections with other books, or because they're too new. There's also a difficulty in where to draw the line as every book added can slow down querying (each query traverses a database of over ten million relationships and around 400,000 books). This is a point of improvement that I'd like to work on though.
It would be great to see a summary of the book when you click on it!
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#129I've been recommending Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach. Very few under 30s have heard of it. A classic of the 1970s New Left. Yet stunningly predicts the current secessionist mindset of the Alt Right. Plus ca change ;)
Re: Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber
#130This is interesting. I put in a handful of books on my shelf that I have read and enjoyed, and the results that it returned seem to be largely: a) religion of all kinds but largely Christian apology, and b) civil rights and apartheid. Both topics I wouldn't go out of my way to read about but I might if it the book seemed particularly interesting and was well reviewed (so pretty much the point of this project).
One interesting note is that there are several books on the list I absolutely would read, I just didn't know they existed or hadn't sought them out. One of Stephen Hawking's books, some American military books, a few biographies, etc.