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

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

#31
Email me at mfiver@gmail.com. I'm solving this exact problem right now at peruse.meteor.com. It could be valuable for both of us to exchange ideas.

As people have mentioned here, wandering bookstores and libraries are excellent ways to get out of a filter bubble. That's exactly what we're simulating at Peruse.

EDIT for reference, I'm the one who recently posted on this topic, because it's an issue I've been having too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9458829

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

#32
Quit your job. Drop LSD repeatedly over the course of a week. Stop reddit usage (reddit is a watering hole for morons). Learn LISP (it is more of a trip than acid). Find controversial people, read and understand their viewpoint.

Do mathematics. Good luck.

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

#33
post #13

Learn a a new language.

This suggestion is simple and lower down the rankings, but it's very much the best.

Learning a new language isn't just reading and writing some stuff in a different way. It exposes you to new TV programmes, new styles of music, new fashions and fads. You'll see different kinds of politics, where the duopoly of Liberal/Conservative simply doesn't apply. A different view on history. Different ways of separating people than "race" and different ways of grouping them together than rich or poor.

While the other suggestions have merit, I don't think any of them almost literally open up a whole new world to you the way learning a language does. It will help you view your own culture in a new way too.

[similar applies to computer languages ;-) ]

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

#34

Quit your job. Drop LSD repeatedly over the course of a week. Stop reddit usage (reddit is a watering hole for morons). Learn LISP (it is more of a trip than acid). Find controversial people, read and understand their viewpoint. Do mathematics. Good luck.

I almost forgot - don't interact with people for several months at a time - the meaningless interactions of everyday life get in the way of significant thoughts.

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

#35
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…

Someone once gave me a great piece of advice - read a book that you might not "normally" read, especially an autobiography. Doing so can give you a glimpse into a wholly different way of thinking about the world than you might be used to. I follow this advice whenever I'm in an airport and the results are always interesting.

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

#36
Go bankrupt/totally broke, start using website blockers.

I got some serious depression when I got to the point of non-expanding (if you can name it like that).

I sold out all my business, throw a glow on everything else. Went full blown bankrupt. Do not drag your family in to this, it is lone journey. I went to very close of zero - barely possible to afford food. Rewritten myself and started from the beginning. It is amazing how you can rewrite yourself when back to basics.

6 months it took me to rewrite all the "downs" and once I started business it took me 2 weeks to earn as much as in last 6 months. Now everything is so much easier.

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

#37
Pick a random interesting page from a reference below, then use a search engine to find and connect with people who care about the topic:

Harper's dictionary of classical literature and antiquities, https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog

David Rumsey Map Collection (includes old "maps" of human knowledge, today could be called infographics), http://www.davidrumsey.com

The Ancient Engineers, by L. Sprague de Camp, http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancient-Engineers-Sprague-Camp/dp/...

Oxford English Dictionary, 1888 Edition, 15000 searchable pages as a Windows app, https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407

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

#38
Besides looking for different topics as many have suggested, look for different authors. If you find that everything you read is written by people from your own country, search out readings from authors of other nationalities. If you find that everything you read is written by people of your own race, search out readings from authors of other races. If you find that everything you read is written by men, search out readings by women.

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

#39
edge.org, long now, london literary review, are good starting points.

Also regarding books - try to find books that abstract the patterns out of a field, since it's a useful way to maximize learning - and having everything in a format that's easy to use in the future(problem -> pattern).

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