FAN Principle

10 Ways We Build Our Own Brick Walls

We hear it everywhere: “I’ve hit this brick wall!” ... Or worse, “I’ve hit this brick wall. This problem just can’t be solved!” ... Or even worse, “I’ve hit this brick wall. There’s nothing more to be found. So I’ll just make a decision on the basis of what I already have.” Ah, yes. Frustration, hopelessness, and folly.

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Research Is a Spiral Process, Not a Straight Line

An earlier posting about the research process has triggered a boatload of questions—and a bit of frustration. “I must not be doing something right,” sighed one friend of this page. ...

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Chasing Abstracts to the Originals

Yesterday’s QuickTest presented a page from a published source, with a helpful abstract of a document. We used the abstract to locate the original, then presented you with a typescript of the full document—inviting you to compare the two and tell us whether-and-why the effort was or was not worth it. ...

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QuickLesson 14: Petitions—What Can We Do with a List of Names?

Petitions to the president. Petitions to Congress. Petitions to the governor. Petitions to the legislature. Petitions to mayors and local commissioners. Petitions can be found at almost every level of government. As students of history, how do we use these? What value do we squeeze from them? Do we systematically seek them? Or, do we occasionally stumble upon one that has a name of interest and think: Hmhh, could this be my person-of-interest?

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