Get Outside Your Echo Chamber

We all have echo chambers. They’re the places where everyone agrees that something is right, and something else is wrong.

Where assumptions are unexamined, let alone unquestioned.

Where we do things because we always done it that way.

Echo chambers are dangerous because they keep blind spots invisible. And blind spots are what stop us every time. They cause the smallest things to become enormous. They cause us to make stupid mistakes.

Echo chambers cause people to hate the opposition, to demonize them, to distort them. It’s easier to hate or ignore someone you never see up close, in three dimensions. (If you were to collect the most vitriolic political blogs from both the left and right, I’d wager that most would originate from people inside an echo chamber.)

Here’s one way you can tell you’re in an echo chamber. If your co-worker says something and you say, “you’re right” because she agrees with you, you’re probably in an echo chamber. That co-worker is not necessarily correct because she agrees with you; she simply agrees with you.

Find your echo chambers and get outside of them – fast. That’s where you’ll find excellence and creativity.