How to tear down the walls of your echo chamber | Hacker News Reader

How to tear down the walls of your echo chamber

cdevroe.com

60 pointscdevroe33 comments

How about watch more TV? None of the people I know in Silicon Valley watch the top 10 shows in America, among those that even have a TV! When I go home for the holidays I get an education in how the rest of the country thinks through the television.

Besides seeing what other people are watching I simply do not see much value in the top 10 shows on TV in the US.

So your post is about broadening your experience, but you're dismissing TV because it's only use is to show you what other people are experiencing?

I'm not a big TV watcher, but I would certainly say there's some value to a walled in, introverted person in figuring out why "American Idol" or "Two And A Half Men" are some of the most popular shows in the US. Most people around here just assume it's because everyone else is a dumbass.

BTW: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/once.html

How about have kids? My kids are constantly challenging me to reexamine why I do the things I do. More so challenging me to explain why I make them do the things I make them do. Not to mention introducing me to new music (I get to introduce them to my music too) and shows.

I can't up vote this enough. Things from _way_ outside of my confort zone, just from the last week due to my kids (I have 2 teenage girls):

Coaching Softball (I generally dislike base/softball) Sewing Marathon training teenage interpersonal relationships

Kids are great for new experiences. Especially if you encourage _them_ to take on new experiences, invariably you will also get to experience new things.

Parent/Children interactions are a bit sci-fi to me. Completely modern foreign for both.

One thing I like to do is try to start conversations with people who believe very different things than I do. For a while I was doing weekly bible readings with a very interesting group of Christian people (I'm not Christian and have never been religious). It got heated. I was very challenged and forced to analyze my own beliefs and the presuppositions I brought to the table. I'm sure they felt that they had to do the same as well and I think we all became better people for it.

My experience has been this is a recipe for becoming an admirably open, yet unlikable person.

I'm actually in the process of heading in the other direction. In fact, I think that I recently lost a budding friendship because of a heated political discussion.

Sorry to hear that, but its been my experience that a friendship that gets tripped up by relatively superficial differences like that is probably not a strong friendship to begin with. I am not old, but the older I get, the less I feel like religion and politics are relevant to a person's personality. At the risk of trivializing them too much, I almost think of them as a team allegiance like rooting for the Packers vs the Steelers... While there are consequences for what people believe, in terms of a friendship, these things really don't matter to me.

Well, in my defense I did say it was a "budding friendship".

However, I literally have never had a positive experience discussing religion or politics, except with people with whom I already agree.

I have a personal rule to never do so, and I've even attempted to apply that to the Internet and failed on several occasions. Yet, I regret having tried in each case.

I actually made a pretty good friend out of it.

Good list, but what's with the "What 90% Less TV" quip? I get it, TV is an idiot box, there's nothing good on, blah blah. But not all TV is equal. Does this include content you actively seek out on Netflix or some other on-demand service that you happen to view on your TV?

This appears as another, "I don't even own a tv" kind of elitism advice. Without a reason as to why I should stop watching so much tv, or even a basis for the seemingly arbitrary 90% number I can't take this advice with any kind of seriousness.

I can't stand this either. People constantly blame the medium (TV) but in reality, it's (some of) the content that's bad, not the medium. There is plenty of good television out there.

I enjoy watching certain TV more than others, for various reasons. Sometimes it's to learn, sometime it's for relaxation.

Where does it stop? Are movies bad too? They're just like TV, except (usually) on a bigger screen and longer. What about theatrical plays? Are those making me dumber too?

</rant>

And why even stop with only visual mediums, why is listening to music any more fulfilling or beneficial than watching a 30 minute sitcom?

This might really come down to passive viewing versus active viewing,where in the passive case you're just sitting there flipping channels to pass the time, consuming whatever is presented to you. This isn't inherently a bad thing though. If it is relaxing or enjoyable to you, then there is no reason to stop. Not everything you do in life needs to improve you as a person on some deep level.

Sometimes, sitting there twiddling your thumbs to relax or recharge is just as beneficial as reading, learning, growing, coding, building, shipping, etc.

Absolutely. I've noticed that after days of really hard, fulfilling work, I find even the dumbest tv still kind of entertaining. Its a one of a number of ways to be idle without being asleep, and you can be around other people too. It can be very relaxing. But if I'm not tired, and haven't done a lot of work, I hate it.

"Sometimes, sitting there twiddling your thumbs to relax or recharge is just as beneficial as reading, learning, growing, coding, building, shipping, etc."

Exactly.

As with any medium, you have to apply filters to experience quality. The basic experience of television goes totally against this, though. You turn it on and get a constant stream of whatever is on at the moment. If you don't like it, you can change streams. It's dazzling and more than a little hypnotic. The radio is like this too, but less engrossing since there's no visual stimulus.

I prefer on-demand media to this kind of streaming media. With a record or a film, you get to actually choose what to watch, and this makes all the difference. You can apply filters. If you're just sitting at home channel surfing, you're going to end up watching a lot of crap you wouldn't have bothered to deliberately leave your house for.

This isn't to say there's no good TV content, just that the traditional medium of TV is better suited to deliver metric tons of total crap. But this content still ends up on on-demand media, and frankly a lot of TV content is best watched this way anyway. If "no filtering" is the primary problem, this is the solution.

Point well taken. I should have probably said, don't watch primetime TV or something? I agree though, the medium isn't at fault. Tons of good stuff on TV if you hunt around.

I still don't think the idea of labeling all of primetime TV as bad is reasonable.

TV is a medium for entertainment, and entertainment is subjective. How, when or why you consume it, as long as it isn't hurting anyone, shouldn't be up for judgement.

Maybe, better advice would be, to stop watching tv when it is no longer providing you the benefit you were seeking. Like, turn off the TV when you aren't enjoying watching it anymore and find something else enjoyable to do.

Prime-time shows are aimed to appeal to a broad audience, making them much more likely to exacerbate your echo-chamber problem.

The medium is the message.

Go to Burning Man.

Along with the outrageously friendly crowd willing to strike up conversations about anything, it's has the greatest density of diversity that I've ever seen. In one day, you could easily discuss politics with Republicans, Democrats, moderates, and extremists; religion with Atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians; and science with research scientists, conspiracy theorists, and mystics.

Good list.

Add to it: Get out of the building and talk to customers. Real customers. In other parts of the world.

Another great addition. The company I work for, Viddler, has been doing that a lot more recently. Actually visiting our customers in their offices or in "the field" in which they work to really learn how they use our product. And it has been a boon of product information for us.

This is a good suggestion if only a bit vague. How exactly do you do that?

apr: How about simply scheduling meetings with your customers and asking them how they use your product, what they need, and how your company can help them with their goals.

I'd love to know if the HN community has any other tips to add to this list that I've jotted down.

Great list. I'd add: rather than ask someone what they do, ask them what they enjoy doing.

That's an excellent suggestion -- good way to change up a tired conversation starter.

My addition to the list would be to learn/practice something that you find frustrating or just don't know well. E.g. I know C/C++/python well, but I'm a terrible javascript programmer, so I could "de-echo" by learning JS and listening to some of the things coming out of the community. Going broader, I try to do achieve some larger (or smaller) non-programming project on a regular basis -- build something, grow fruits & vegetables, learn the Cyrillic alphabet (as an example of something smaller), etc.

delano: I love that. I'll add it to my post soon.

I think learning a new language might be a big gateway too

> It is good to know what’s new. But don’t forget to learn from the past or from something new.

I have a feeling this post was dashed off rather than thought through.

+1 Project: How to turn an echo-chamber into a concert hall =)

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