Research Is a Superpower

This post comes from a book I am working on called Research and Writing for Music History Students: A Field Guide. While the book is aimed directly at students in the music history sequence, the concepts in it apply to anyone who is looking to accomplish research. In this excerpt from the “Principles” section of the book, I discuss how integral research is to our everyday lives.

Would you rather watch this content as a video? I made one: How to Research: Why Research Is a Superpower.

Imagine a world without research.

Imagine a world without research. What would that world look like?

You would have no ability to seek out answers or information about a decision. You would have only your experience to draw upon. There would be no Google. No YouTube "how to" videos that could teach you how to draw, how to cut your own hair, solve a Rubix cube, or the perfect way to shovel snow in your driveway.

Now imagine, in this world, a scenario in which you are hungry and you are standing in front of a bush that has berries. You hold the berry in your hand. It is spherical and smooth, deep red, and glistening in the early morning dew. You squeeze the berry between your fingers and it is ripe and juicy. Your stomach rumbles.

Should you eat this berry, or will it kill you?

Will it kill you: this is a research problem if ever there was one. But remember, you are in a world without research, so all of your questions are only based on your personal experience. 

What berries in your region are poisonous? You don't know, because no one has ever gathered that information and written it down. What is the name of the berry you hold in your hand? You don't know this either, and there is no reference book to look in. And you surely can't Google it. You can't even ask a friend. Interviewing is a form of research.

You *do* know that you once saw someone eat a spherical red berry that looked like this one. She ate it and looked very happy afterward. You also once saw someone else eat a spherical red berry that looked like this one. He ate it and two days later he was dead.

Should you eat the berry? You have two options: take the risk, or go hungry until you can find a more trusted food source. 

This scenario highlights a superpower of the human race: the ability to externalize information and share it with others, and the ability to *learn from others' experience* what you should and shouldn't do. We are the only creatures on the planet who can do this. In other words, research is a superpower. Use it.

Want to read another excerpt from Research and Writing for Music History Students: A Field Guide? See my post on what The Mandalorian can teach us about making sacrifices to build deep skills in research: This Is the Way.