by david allan van nostrand | Jun 22, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Using Information
There is a skeptic inside each of us. Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure. Skeptics want to see the world for what it...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 8, 2020 | Focus Groups, How to tell good research from bad
The father of the focus group despised how his methodology had been hijacked and bastardized. Robert Merton said “Focus groups are supposed to be merely the source of ideas that need to be researched.” They were meant to be no more than a jumping off point and a...
by david allan van nostrand | Apr 27, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Using Information
Long before the Europeans came, the Iroquois were a tribe that lived across most of New York, Pennsylvania, and Eastern Canada. Like most societies, they had a creation story. “They swam to the Great Turtle, master of all the animals, who at once called a...
by david allan van nostrand | Mar 9, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Items in the News, Using Information
People are methodologists without realizing it until I ask them if they’ve ever done a jigsaw puzzle. Most of us have, usually as children, and we solved them by following a prescribed system of rules while adhering to a strict set of principles, automatically and...
by david allan van nostrand | Mar 2, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Items in the News, Misinformation traps
We passed the entrance to this market research facility several times because we had automatically assumed we would come upon their roadside sign. No sign and not even a street number, just the rusted oil drums and concrete rubble you see in the photo. This got me to...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 17, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Items in the News, Misinformation traps
We cannot say how much research costs any more than we can say how much a car costs until we’ve asked and answered lots of important questions. Do we want a new car or a used car? Two, three, four, or five doors? Will our car be the bare bones version or the one with...
