Information Avoidance: How People Select Their Own Reality
I feel this pressure whenever I come up with a new startup idea. I hate doing lots of research, only to find that my idea has already been done. Most recently, I wasn&#x27;t very happy with a portable router that I had bought, so I started brainstorming ideas for a new travel router that would be extremely easy to use and to set up. My idea was that your new wifi password would seamlessly sync to the router, and you could set it up from streamlined OSX toolbar or mobile application. But then I found the ASUS WL-330NUL, which already does everything I was imagining. And I also realized that I could never compete with hardware like that. I was just going to build a prototype with a Raspberry Pi and a few wifi adapters.<p>On a related topic: I hold very liberal views, and I&#x27;ve recently tried to expose myself to more conservative opinions. So far I&#x27;ve just subscribed to &#x2F;r&#x2F;Conservative on Reddit, and I&#x27;ve read a few articles on Breitbart and other conservative sites. I also read through some of the comments, which was very frightening. That is not a place for intellectual discussion. I have relatives who often send me articles from <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;creation.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;creation.com</a>, so there&#x27;s another source of information that I try to avoid..<p>Also, a few days ago I was on a flight, and the person next to me was telling me about his flat earth beliefs, and a wide variety of other conspiracy theories. He mentioned how Breivik was just a scapegoat, because the government had ordered the killing of those children. And also 9&#x2F;11 was an inside job, Stalin was a hero, and how The Hunchback of Notre Dame takes place in Saigon, Vietnam. (I believe he came to that conclusion after visiting the Notre-Dame cathedral in Saigon.) It was an interesting 3 hours. At one point he was telling me how the sun is only 50 kilometers wide, and it moves around on giant cables. Also, there are no satellites in space. They are all underground, and that&#x27;s how GPS works. Also that&#x27;s why GPS sometimes has problems, because Google&#x27;s Maps are all wrong. I tried to really understand all of his views, but I can&#x27;t say they were very compelling. It&#x27;s strange, because he was a very well-read person, and seemed quite smart, apart from these insane views.