On a lighter note, I use the same approach in understanding user needs as a product builder. I focus on letting people share the minutiae of their day rather than have them editorialize the big topics. By doing so, I get a lot of visceral insight and intuition.
Thanks for sharing this. I really enjoyed reading it.
The problem with the old "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" quote of uncertain provenance is that it leaves out most of the population: the people who truly don't care.
One of my visceral touchstones for early New York: All through the winter, excrement would accumulate, frozen in the streets. Then would come the spring thaw. Even New Yorkers found it notable. It would take several weeks, for hordes of ultimately-fat pigs, to consume that... bounty.
More on topic, I was years ago viscerally struck by a letter from a 1700's British officer embedded with an American militia. He was clearly gobsmacked - the American officer was... was talking with his men, and... asking the men what they thought!?!
Perhaps we might teach history as a "travel guide for the time traveler"? "Finding yourself in NY in December of 1836, ..."
Nice thought on user interviews.
Shout-out to a grindset abolitionist!
I work in the neighborhood though so it’s wild to imagine all that going down on the same streets I walk to work on.
This sentence kind of contradicts the author's point though? After all that tedious work within the legal system it wasn't even procedure that got any of these men freed, but actual direct action.