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

Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 55 posts

Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#1

Post by rayalez »

Hi! I've noticed that I've stopped rapidly expanding my knowledge about the world. I hang out on the same websites(HN, reddit), learn the same topics(programming plus couple of hobbies), hear the same ideas.

Nothing has dramatically "expanded my mind" or changed my opinion in the past couple of years. I try to read a lot but it seems like all the books I read are on the same topics, and just repeat the same ideas.

How do I fight that?

I think there's a lot of great areas of knowledge and new ideas in the world that I have no idea about, but I don't know how to find them.

I feel like I've explored pretty much everything that I care to know about the world, and all that is left is to go deeper into the areas I'm already aware of(science, tech, etc), but of course it's probably not true.

What do you do about that? And what are some things that you've discovered in the past 5 years that you weren't aware of before?

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#2

Post by jgh »

Check out the local poetry scene. If you're in/near a big city it will almost certainly exist and you'll definitely be exposed to a whole host of new ideas from all sorts of socioeconomic strata. The events are generally free or you can donate. Often the poets will have self-published (or small-time-published) chapbooks for a few dollars.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#5

Post by ajdecon »

Go to the library. (Yes, the place with all the books. ;-) ) Wander through the nonfiction section and scan the titles. If anything catches your eye, pick it up and read the first couple pages. If it seems at all interesting, check it out and read it.

This technique is responsible for my reading in depth about the history of shipping containers, learning just a little bit about how to do interior design, and reading a large number of gardening books. (And doing some gardening!) Among other things.

You could probably come up with something similar online. (For example, clicking "Random article" on Wikipedia and actually reading it.) But I find that if I'm at a computer, I'm more prone to revert to narrow interests. Going to the real, physical library seems to make me less distractable -- or more so, depending on how you look at it. :)

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#6

Post by trwhite »

Why don't you try reading outside of the subject areas with which you're familiar? Or perhaps you could take up a hobby that requires a different frame of thought to the ones you already do? There's plenty more out there beyond science & tech.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#7

Post by AnkhMorporkian »

ajdecon wrote: post #5

Go to the library. (Yes, the place with all the books. ;-) ) Wander through the nonfiction section and scan the titles. If anything catches your eye, pick it up and read the first couple pages. If it seems at all interesting, check it out and read it. This technique is responsible for my reading in depth about the history of shipping containers, learning just a little bit about how to do interior design, and reading…

A hundred times this. I was at the library with my nephew a few years ago. He was watching a magic show the library was putting on, so I just wandered around. If I hadn't done that, I never would have gotten into homebrewing and the surrounding theory, which has been a huge horizon broadener and eats up a good portion of my time.

So many things would never strike your interest on the internet as much as they would when you're holding a book. I'm not sure what the difference is, but your theory seems as good as any.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#8

Post by devalier »

Most of my knowledge exploration comes from real world encounters.

I moved to an older, partially-decaying, partially-gentrifying U.S. city and wanted to learn all about its history. What happened to all these crumbling old buildings? Why are certain areas blighted? Where did all the old ethnic communities go?

Back in 2008, shortly after I started earning money and investing in the stock market, the market crashed. So I went a long reading project trying to figure out what causes booms and busts, bubbles and crashes.

Then there are all sorts of political questions in the world. What drives terrorism? Who is right or wrong about policy argument X?

There are endless historical arguments. Why did the Roman Empire fall? Were the American colonists really right to rebel from the British, or is that just winner's history? Where did our modern customs and mores come from?

I've gone down other reading rabbit holes with other life knowledge areas - dating & relationships, management, startups, etc.

If there are certain areas that pique your interest, perhaps myself or someone else could make you a reading list that will break you out of your filter bubble. I've certainly come across a lot unorthodox material that is both edgy, novel, and more true than not. But it is hard to give you advice if you don't know what you want to learn about.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#9

Post by dalke »

ajdecon wrote: post #5

Go to the library. (Yes, the place with all the books. ;-) ) Wander through the nonfiction section and scan the titles. If anything catches your eye, pick it up and read the first couple pages. If it seems at all interesting, check it out and read it. This technique is responsible for my reading in depth about the history of shipping containers, learning just a little bit about how to do interior design, and reading…

I'll add that one shouldn't exclude older books for being old. I've been reading scientific literature from the 1960s, and it's full of similar topics to now (information explosion, data science, organizational principles). They, like we, are in a bubble formed by the general cultural expectations of that era and topic.

Only, it's a different bubble than now.

It also ended up making me less interested in following the new hotness, when I realize it's often little different from the new hotness of a few decades ago. Makes me jaded before my time ;)

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I'm in a filter bubble. How can I “expand my horizons”?

#10

Post by mindcrime »

What do you do about that?

Here's one easy option:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

Beyond that, if you think about it, this is actually a sort of paradox. Anything you consciously choose to do to break out of your filter bubble, could just be part of the very filter bubble you're in! How do you ever really "take the red pill"? I think one of the best ways is to interact with other people, who have different hobbies, interests, and ideas. Go to meetups and user group meetings, but make it a point to talk to people you wouldn't usually talk to, or identify and try to connect with the people who say things you instinctively find yourself disagreeing with, etc.

Try to cultivate friendships with people outside of your chosen field and discipline. If most of your friends are people you know through work and tech related stuff, start looking to make friends from other venues. Take up a hobby - salsa dancing, mountain biking, cooking, poetry, whatever, and start going to events that cater to those hobbies, and make friends with those people.

Post reply on HN