One of the things that has had the most profound influence in my life was to apply for and get a fellowship that paid me graduate studies in the US. The only reason I learned of its existence was my mom seeing an ad of it on the newspaper.

Shelves on shops manipulate you. Some products are put in front, some in the back. Back in the day, small companies suffered due to this and big brands used to get more brand placement. Counters have inexpensive candies, so that, instead of giving change money back they can give you candies. On the other hand, that surveillance by Google gives me great Articles in Google Chrome. There are scores of programming related articles which i wouldn't have discovered otherwise. I mean I can't "just go and read an article: when i don't know about that website. To each their own.