The concept of understanding someone's thoughts and motivations by the execution of a survey has been on my mind of late. A portion of this pondering began with this NYT article "Columbia's Gang Scholar Lives on the Edge" highlighting Sudhir Venkatesh's work (and a bit of controversy). Venkatesh's early experience included work on a research project whose leader had the request to survey those who were poor to find out how they felt about being poor. (Fairly sure Richard Dawson would have had only one answer on the board.) He abandoned paper and instead talked with people, shadowing, learning. These day to day interactions later emerged into books.
This morning, while reading through a NYT list of the top 10 best books of 2012 (already!?), I discovered Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. Boo spent three years reporting in Annawadi, just outside Mumbai, capturing the stories of men, women and children. Her book is described as "narrative nonfiction."
Walking the proverbial mile, watching, and listening. I think it's better than a survey.
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