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Bubbles

Entry 2392, on 2025-04-02 at 20:17:57 (Rating 4, Comments)

A major issue we have today is delusion, at least according to my latest theory. I often see people with the most ridiculous ideas and wonder how they reached that position. It almost always ends up that they live in a bubble and are never exposed to alternative ideas in any meaningful way.

I challenged someone just recently who had some extreme (and inaccurate) ideas about Donald Trump. I asked where he got those ideas from, and whether he had ever heard any information which contradicted his beliefs, and he just had no clue at all. He genuinely thought they were the only opinions any sensible person could have.

I think I know where he got them from: the mainstream media, whose main function today is to tell us what to think, rather than present the facts so that we can decide what to think. Even though he didn't acknowledge this, the words he used were almost exactly what TVNZ had been using the previous night. Not only that, but he couldn't list any other possible sources he might use, apart from TVNZ.

Is that a problem? Do people want to spend a lot of time looking for multiple sources? Well, a lot may not want to, but in that case they should accept that they are not well informed. And it doesn't have to take a lot of extra time. Instead of watching TVNZ, spend an hour on the internet, or maybe do that every second day. It's not that hard to escape from the bubble of a single news source.

There is also a lot of delusion in management. I know managers who are grossly incompetent and who have made obvious errors which almost everyone affected acknowledges, but they still think they are doing a great job.

Why? Well, most of them never hear any opinions from outside their group of "elites". They spend half (or more) of their lives in pointless meetings congratulating each other on how clever they are. If there is a way for the "lesser" staff to send feedback it is usually through a mechanism so convoluted that no trace of the original intent of the message remains.

So they live in a bubble of sycophancy and servility where the inconvenient realities of their actions never challenge their delusions of adequacy.

There's an obvious solution to this: managers should listen to what people on the "coalface" are saying, and take their opinions seriously. And they should have the humility to accept that they are not the experts, and don't have much idea what is happening at the levels where the real core work gets done. Will this happen? It's very unlikely, because the current model which encourages a certain type of person to take management positions almost guarantees the worst outcomes.

So proceeding further up (or should that be down) the social hierarchy we come to politicians; how do they measure up in this regard? Well, they do get to hear a lot of alternative opinions during debates with opposition politicians, so at least they are exposed to the views of others, but in that environment it is very much a team game where the "enemy" can be safely ignored.

So in this case the alternative views are at least heard, even though they might not have any positive effect. Some of Trump's policies which are being criticised by the Democrats now look identical to what their own policies were a few years back (for example, the Dems used to be quite strong on controlling illegal border crossings), so in that case tribalism is probably a bigger issue than being isolated in a bubble.

Here's a suggestion I have for anyone who might be susceptible to the "bubble effect": when you see a headline or any other information which you really like and agree with, do an internet search using a key phrase and see what other sources are saying. Try to include at least two sources which usually have opposing views, such as a left-oriented and a right-oriented news source. Preferably do this in a private tab in a search engine without logging in, so that your past preferences don't affect the result.

It's hard to avoid bubbles completely, especially considering the way the internet, especially social media, works, but just break away from the bubble occasionally to see what's happening outside. It can be quite revealing.

Comment 1 (7871) by Jim on 2025-04-04 at 12:49:34:

Err, OK... you don't live in a "bubble" though do you?

Comment 2 (7872) by OJB on 2025-04-04 at 14:42:11:

I don't think so. I listen to and watch mainstream media, which generally has a very different political perspective from me. I work in a university, which is a very woke environment. I follow as many left oriented people as right on social media. When I see some news which conveniently supports what I believe, I do the "search for a phrase" trick I mentioned above. Look at my old posts and you will see I have changed my mind on many things. So, no. I don't think I live in a bubble.

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