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

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

#131

Post by jaggirs »

cgriswald wrote: post #126
austincheney wrote: post #123

I 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 bu…

I think in this case it probably ends up suggesting random books that were read by your 'cluster' at different periods of their life (i.e. when they were a child) that they may not necessarily like to read now (I loved this book when I was a kid: 5 stars)

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

#132

Post by [deleted] »

maroonblazer wrote: post #56
isogon wrote: post #28

Earlier 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…

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?

[deleted]

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

#133

Post by kevinpet »

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…

Agreed. I have long wanted to see a social network or recommendation engine that generated those arguments most likely to appeal to those who disagree. What Julia Galef calls steelmanning.

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

#134

Post by AntiImperialist »

When I put:

- "The Sovereign Individual" by James D. Davidson

- "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World" by Harry Browne

I got suggested The Bible NIV and a bunch of other Christian books. Is it trying to tell me that the western totalitarian tendencies come from their Christian heritage or am I reading too much into it?

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

#135

Post by leadingthenet »

sonotathrowaway wrote: post #84
isogon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does often gloss over the nuance. I ultimately try to estimate how bad I am at assessing the veracity of arguments concerning the topic at hand, which I think is most valuable. For example, I read many conflicting predictions concerning the last US election, saw that I could not distinguish bad predictions from good ones, and concluded that I have to remain unconvinced. I was vindicated by it being a very tight ra…

I don’t understand the basis by which you think this election was “tight”.

The number of overall votes it would take to change the outcome of the election, compared to the total size of the electorate, is small.

The votes would need to be very precisely distributed, though.

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

#137

Post by kevinpet »

kqr wrote: post #103
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…

I think in order for the opposite thing to work, you have to approach the material with the understanding that "There are people who believe this stuff as firmly as I believe the complete opposite. If you asked them, they say, with absolute conviction, that I'm nuts. How might that happen? What if they're right? What could I have missed?" This engages System 2, hard. And it's so easy to slip back into System 1 and co…

I tried to read "The End of Policing". I got half way through chapter 1 before the author stated, as support for his argument, that The Bell Curve was "overtly racist". Now, you could argue that lots of racists like that book, that the authors might be motivated by bias, etc etc, but no credible reviewer at the time it came out would call it "overtly racist". This is retroactive moving of the goal posts, and the word "overt", to me, still has meaning.

So I tried to read the tripe, but the arguments are not persuasive unless you already believe what they are trying to convince you of.

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

#138

Post by [deleted] »

isogon wrote: post #63
maroonblazer wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It does often gloss over the nuance. I ultimately try to estimate how bad I am at assessing the veracity of arguments concerning the topic at hand, which I think is most valuable. For example, I read many conflicting predictions concerning the last US election, saw that I could not distinguish bad predictions from good ones, and concluded that I have to remain unconvinced. I was vindicated by it being a very tight ra…

[deleted]

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

#140

Post by thekiptxt »

I've always thought that recommendation services would be better of this logic were layered in. E.g. I'm on YouTube and 1 in 10 recommendations are popular/trending videos that the algorithm doesn't think I'll enjoy.

Aside from the obvious necessity of bubble-breaking, it has the nice side effect of retraining the recommendation engine without rampant confirmation bias.

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