

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

Hi! I&#x27;ve noticed that I&#x27;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.<p>Nothing has dramatically &quot;expanded my mind&quot; 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.<p>How do I fight that?<p>I think there&#x27;s a lot of great areas of knowledge and new ideas in the world that I have no idea about, but I don&#x27;t know how to find them.<p>I feel like I&#x27;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&#x27;m already aware of(science, tech, etc), but of course it&#x27;s probably not true.<p>What do you do about that? And what are some things that you&#x27;ve discovered in the past 5 years that you weren&#x27;t aware of before?
======
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. :)

~~~
dalke
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 ;)

------
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.

~~~
tanderson92
Please do! I at least would enjoy reading about any and all of those topics.
The learning about new things is what fascinates and interests me and I would
prefer reading about things I have previously no idea about. Very much
appreciated if you could share some of these things you've learned.

~~~
devalier
Do you have one or two of the topics you are most interested in? It would take
up too much time to dig up a worthwhile list for them all :-P

~~~
tanderson92
A study of the economy would be great. Also interesting would be as you
described "Were the American colonists really right to rebel from the British,
or is that just winner's history?"

A study of "dating & relationships" would be good too (I assume this would
cover all interpersonal relationships, i.e. how to be a good friend and win
friends over)

------
scholia
You're in a filter bubble because you're doing your own curation.
Historically, many if not most thinking people let someone else do their
curation, ie they read a good newspaper or magazine.

Magazines such as The Economist and New Scientist have journalists and editors
who keep a close eye on significant parts of the world and then report them in
digestible form.

With a good newspaper or magazine, you're exposed to a lot of subjects that
you wouldn't normally see in your own filter bubble. Some of those you will
find interesting enough to read, and reading even a few of those stories will
expand your horizons.

~~~
thenomad
The Economist is particularly good. Definitely worth reading if you don't
already do so.

Although they have a filter bubble of their own, it probably doesn't perfectly
align with yours.

~~~
scholia
Great point! It's certainly true that The Economist (like similar
publications) has its own filter bubbles, but (a) it's based on input from
hundreds of people; and (b) the editorial intent is to find and present new
and disruptive ideas. It's the opposite of, say, Fox News, where the aim is to
reinforce existing stereotypes.

I guess you have to choose your publications wisely....

------
jerf
Take advantage of the fact that everything is connected to everything. You
know one of those programming blog posts you're already reading? You know how
there's that link you didn't follow because it was a reference to a show
you've never heard of or something? Follow it. You know that article you read
that yells something or other about what somebody else said, and has you
nodding your head vigorously about how stupid that person must be, but,
suspiciously, doesn't link to the original content, or worse, fails to even
quote it? Go seek out the original content. Then follow a couple of _those_
links. You get linked to a YouTube video... actually look at the "similar
video" links that YouTube spits out, try out a couple that you don't know what
they are. (This works surprisingly well for "real content"; linkbait viral
videos will of course produce just more linkbait viral videos but when you hit
the good stuff the first few links are often also quite good.)

And if you've got some spare income, be willing to start buying a book here or
there related to what you find.

I mean, if you have the desire and the stamina to make one of the big leaps
here, do not let me stop you; those are good too. But you can incrementally
escape from your current filter bubble, too, by growing it. There is no such
thing as not being in one, because you _have_ to have filters, it is literally
impossible not to, so there's not much point in angsting about it, but it _is_
possible to _upgrade_ your bubble.

------
buddydvd
Get a copy of Merriam Webster's Visual Dictionary and just go through its
approx. 1000 pages of high-quality illustrations. It efficiently introduces
you to countless tip-of-the-ice-berg topics/industries that are very much
remotely related to tech. It humbles you and evokes that feeling of self-
insignificance like when you look at aerial view of cities through an airplane
window.

~~~
Dewie3
> It humbles you and evokes that feeling of self-insignificance like when you
> look at aerial view of cities through an airplane window.

What does it matter how small you are compared to a city, the world, or the
Universe? How is that supposed to be humbling? It's more inspiring than
"humbling" to know that there is a vast world which I am not knowledgeable
about. Being as big as a city, the world or the Universe wouldn't fill me with
self-importance; it would fill me with "what's the point".

------
sebslomski
Go read about stocks/etfs/etc. This topic is very underrated, but it's so
important! Getting to know more about this topic changed the way I read the
news and see the world/politics. Also money.

~~~
freefrag
Can you recommend any good introductory material or websites?

~~~
chrizzzer
A good place to start learning about finance is always
[http://www.investopedia.com/](http://www.investopedia.com/). Further I can
recommend reading about modern portfolio theory and the correlation between
risk and return:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory)

------
ohnomrbill
I would try any one of these:

* Volunteer

* Take up an outdoor hobby

* Learn a new spoken language

* Read a seminal work in a vastly different field from computer science (say, "The Interpretation of Dreams" by Freud)

[Edited for formatting]

------
francis-
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.

~~~
francis-
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.

------
funkyy
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.

------
jakeogh
It's been more than 5 years, but researching the science behind 9/11/01 has
been extremely rewarding for me (in the sense that you seem to be asking
about). It's difficult to articulate this to someone who has not looked into
it (for all I know you have), but things that didn't make sense become much
more intuitive. It's a very interesting window into human psychology. I
couldn't have explained this to myself 10 years ago, I would have tuned my
older self out. There's links in my profile and I make a comment about it from
time to time. The biggest hurdle is that the subject is (by no accident)
littered with disinformation designed to poison the well. I'm more than happy
to talk about it, but some folks have a negative reaction (I did) if it's
brought up so I usually dont.

The AIA's upcoming convention program has some solid starting points:
[http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab1058...](http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab105885.pdf)

------
walterbell
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](https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog)

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

 _The Ancient Engineers_ , by L. Sprague de Camp, [http://www.amazon.com/The-
Ancient-Engineers-Sprague-Camp/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancient-
Engineers-Sprague-Camp/dp/0345482875)

 _Oxford English Dictionary_ , 1888 Edition, 15000 searchable pages as a
Windows app,
[https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407](https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407)

------
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.

------
somberi
I hear you and you raise a valid point, especially for the Internet
generation. NYtimes stated this elegantly - Algorithms lead us to anagrams.

My suggestion is go to a library.

Even after 15 years of living in the US, I am surprised at how few Americans
use its impressive library system.

I have heavily used the public libraries in NYC and London.

NY Public Library for example, at 53 million titles, is the fourth largest
library in the world. The books and other media available is just mind
boggling.

The Editors Picks (both fiction and non-fiction) in NYPL is fantastic and has
yielded many gems. I am sure it is similar in other library systems as well.

A few years ago, I decided to "outsource" all my book needs to NYPL and as a
result donated all the books I had. Now I use NYPL as my knowledge search and
discovery "tool".

They also have a e-books issuance service, which I use even when I am not in
NYC (where I continue to pay taxes).

------
m52go
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](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9458829)

------
egusa
The best thing you can do is travel, and also aim to learn a new language
(it'll open up your eyes to how much else is out there). Particularly today,
where most cities have co-working spaces with strong communities & community
platforms like StartupDigest.com are active around the world with weekly
events, it's easier today to travel & work for a few weeks than ever before.
Whenever I find myself in a predictable routine as well, I like to attend
conferences; I find the energy there is always helpful.

------
Nutella4
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.

------
im3w1l
Find a random person using facebook, try to become friends.

One unbiased procedure goes like this. Choose a sufficiently large number N.
Choose a sufficiently large number M(N). Choose yourself as starting person.
Now, do the following M times. Generate a random number r between 1 and N.
Change the current person to be the r'th friend of the previous person. Or if
r is less then number of friends, then the person in question does not change.

------
joezjwang
The world is not all described in English. Not all ideas originate from the
English sources like HN. If you have friends from other parts of the world ask
them what books/blogs they read in their own language. This goes along with
comments about learning a new language

------
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.

------
throwawayaway
how many hours a week do you spend outdoors and interacting with people face
to face?

------
evolve2k
Here's one interesting strand you can pull on..

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography)

------
WillPostForFood
Travel, and do it without excessively researching your destination online.

------
jschmitz28
Previous discussion (10 days ago)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9458829](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9458829)

------
cazum
The Stuff You Should Know podcast is a great way to get introduced to all
sorts of topics. Josh and Chuck are super funny guys, and usually know what
they're talking about.

------
minthd
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).

------
thenomad
I'm working on a tool to deal with at least some aspects of this. It's very
simple but might help. Look for a "Show HN" soon.

I'm also in communication with one other developer who has a very clever idea
to achieve the same goal. Again, look for a Show HN soon.

And of course, if you want to chat more about these solutions off HN, email me
- my address is in my HN profile.

------
gluggymug
Biomimicry.

It is when you study nature and animals to find an innovative idea to solve a
man made problem.

------
mikekchar
Learn a new (human) language. It will change the way that you think
(literally).

------
mindcrime
_What do you do about that?_

Here's one easy option:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random](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.

------
meira
Learn a a new language.

~~~
phaemon
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 ;-) ]

------
thirdreplicator
Read "Inside the Spaceships" by George Adamski.

------
pbreit
You could do worse than spending a few hours on TED.

------
bane
It may sound cliche, but as I've gotten older I've started taking more and
more interest into history, and specifically the history of things we hold
commonplace. I like to play a game of "connections" (a la James Burke) and
learn about things by unfolding knowledge.

Take something familiar like amazon.com.

\- It's an on-line department store

\- department stores were designed to consolidate various shopping venues
under one roof

\- Sears was an early department store

\- they launched their stores to cater to working classes and farmers outside
of city centers and in concert with their catalog business

\- their catalogs were common in rural general stores

\- general stores used them to expand the merchandise they could offer to
rural customers

\- rural customers frequented general stores to pick up items they couldn't
manufacture on their farms

\- they came into the town where the general stores were to sell the stuff
they grew on their farms

\- towns sprung up along major navigation routes: roads, rail, rivers and
canals

\- before roads and rail, there were rivers and canals

\- rivers are hard to reliably use to move commodities from rural areas to
market

\- canals offered a more controlled environment to move commodities to market

\- once canals were established goods could easily move both ways

\- this made it more convenient to live in rural areas

\- early canals were fed by gravity, tapping into nearby rivers for water,
this operated the locks and gates

\- an investor and promoter of canals was George Washington

\- George Washington, other than being a General and President was a
businessman

\- Among his business ventures he invested in farming, whisky, canals,
tobacco, horse breeding, weaving (a diversified portfolio)

\- one of his investments was the C&O canal

\- the C&O canal reached Harpers Ferry in 1833 and connected it with
Washington D.C.

\- Harpers Ferry was named after Quaker Colonist Robert Harper and the ferry
service he established

\- It's at the confluence of the Potomac and and Shenandoah rivers

\- Before the industrial revolution and steam power, it was used as a military
manufacturing center and the rivers powered manufacturing equipment used to
carve wood and metal into guns

\- Equipment used to manufacture weapons were standardized and the invention
of interchangeable parts was pioneered there by Captain John Hall between 1820
and 1840 establishing patterns used later in the industrial revolution and
gives us today everything from Cars to iPhones

Each one of these things can be chased off into different directions and the
game of Connections can continue. Along the way you can learn about mechanical
engineering, hydrolic power, logistics, commercial models, and so on as the
web of connections grows out and grows more complex.

Suddenly you'll start to fill in knowledge gaps in other areas, frontier life,
colonization, labor saving devices, information transmission, etc. You'll
start to understand motivations and first principals behind the modern world.
The "why?" behind things. Before too long you'll be able to make seamless
connections up-down and across time. The whole of human history will start to
take on a vividness it doesn't from just reading a linear textbook.

Even better, at particularly interesting stopping points, you can probably go
visit those places and see those things yourself and continue to unfold
knowledge and ideas.

Imagine my surprise when I saw how much of ancient Rome was built out of brick
and not marble, and the implications that arise from an industry built around
supplying brick to the ancient empire and not quarrying marble! Or seeing
Roman concrete in the Pantheon and then climbing the Duomo in Florence and
seeing Brunelleschi overcoming a thousand years of ignorance and figuring out
how to build a dome again -- and then climbing other domes and seeing
Brunelleschi's idea repeated over and over again for centuries. Or seeing the
Mosque of Muhammad Ali in Cairo, built from Pyramid stone and adorned with a
French clock, and then going to Paris and seeing the Luxor Obelisk at the
Place de la Condorde in Paris and thinking through the problem of that
exchange in detail (it was like a brain explosion for me). Or walking the
restored fortifications at Rhodes and understanding how difficult the approach
by the Ottomans was, and then seeing Malta right after and learning about the
Knights of Saint John. Or seeing Hadrian's Arch in Athens, Hadrian's Wall in
the U.K, Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome and so many statues of Hadrian that you
realize you can recognize him by sight, 2,000 years after his death, from
across the room in Washington D.C. Or visiting Dasan's grave in South Korea,
and then seeing the fortifications at Hwaseong Fortress and then realizing he
was Catholic and reading about Christianity in Korea and finding out it
started in China!

The world is a mindblowing place full of problems that so many smart people
throughout history have tried all kinds of interesting ways to solve. I find
I'm often inspired and in awe at what those who have come before us have
solved, in far more primitive times and without any of the means we have
available to us today. It puts in perspective things we still struggle with
today, and connects me to people and their thoughts from thousands of years
ago. Time starts to flatten out and appreciation starts to creep in.

------
bra-ket
dig deeper into one topic

------
pcunite
Keep asking questions like this one.

:-)

------
time4hn
get off your computer

