Research

Research (What)

Research is the process of gathering good information, figuring it out, and storing it for future use—usually to accomplish something worthwhile.

Process (method): A process or method is a set of steps for getting a useful result.
Good Information: Good information (high-quality information) is information that meets seven criteria: super useful, true, accurate, complete, easy to understand, well-organized, and justified.

Getting good information about COVID vaccines for the purposes of making the best choices with regard to health.
Getting good information about a product for the purpose of making the best buying decision.
Getting good information so that you can solve a problem.
Getting good information so that you can learn something.
Getting good information so that you maximize the quality of a vacation.

Here are some reasons why being skilled in research is worthwhile.

Better Results: Good information leads to far better results in anything and everything: learning, problem solving, decision making, investing, trip planning, and making purchases.
Fewest Drawbacks: Good information leads to cost and time savings.
Competence:
1. One cannot be skilled at learning, problem solving, or critical thinking unless they are skilled at research.
2. Research skills are crucial in many fields such as engineering, business, and law.
Truth:
1. Believe things that are true.
2. Avoid believing things that are false, unproven, or unprovable.
Academic Success: For university professors, status, jobs, tenure, and promotions are tied to research productivity, measured by the number of published studies and the prestige of the journal.
Wellbeing: Good information is essential for maximizing one’s wellbeing: spiritual, emotional, physical, social, financial, and so on.
Saves huge amounts of time and effort because you can capitalize on what others have already figured out.

Here are some concerns about research

Research can take a lot of time and effort.
It is uncommon for people to be able to figure out what is true and what is not. This skill (called fact-checking) is essential for skilled research.
Some academic research doesn’t contribute meaningfully to the well-being of people or the planet because it was done to get “academic countables.”

There are two kinds of research: primary and secondary.
1. Secondary research involves finding information that is already known from other people or from their products: books, webpages, videos, journal articles, and so on.
2. Primary research involves finding information by direct means such as observations, experiments, calculations, investigative journalism, and so on.
Good information meets seven criteria: super useful, true, accurate, complete, easy to figure out, well-organized, and justified.
Most information is not good information although parts of it may be valuable.
Absolute truth rarely, or perhaps never, exists. Instead, we can look for information that has a high probability of being true.
The essence of research is asking insanely great questions.
Payoffs. Always do research such that you get positive payoffs, typically high payoffs. A payoff refers to your rewards minus your drawbacks taken holistically.

Repetitions: While getting more information is still providing payoffs, take the following actions

Key Question(s). Ask one or more great questions that focus the research efforts.
Sources: Find the best sources for secondary information.
Diamond Mining: Figure out the main ideas from your sources. Document.
Primary Research: Figure out what direct evidence would be worthwhile and get it. Document.
Reflective Thinking: Think back on your experiences and figure out next steps, implications, and so on.

Most research should be super fast. Keep refining your methods until you get there.
AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, CoPilot) are super useful.
Re. asking killer questions, learn about Inquiry Questions-5W2H. They are super useful.