The Value of Observation in Research

​So something I read in the starting years of learning economics was Adam Smith’s paper explaining division of labour and it just stayed back with me throughout life. The simple concepts of the invisible hand, free markets, and how one of his main pieces of research was just exploring the concept of division of labour through observation of the factory and its assembly line really spoke to me as a young learner. Today every time I look at anything related to research, I always go back to how simple that concept was, and how his eyes were a medium through which something so intriguing was given to the world of economics. I feel like much of economics today misses that kind of observation and the raw discussion that you had about new concepts. One could say that everyone has discovered everything in the world and there isn’t much scope for such kind of novel observation based economics, but I beg to differ. I feel like as we say in economics, once you hold other things constant, you will be able to observe the variable, just like that if we really shut out our mind to other things, we’ll be able to observe more new economics. I miss research papers just talking to us in a very simple language. Even I am kind of guilty of wanting to make a paper sound, empirical or statistical, but somehow the kind of research that attracts me is just the concept of giving new ideas to this world. In this context I have realised that to be a good researcher, observation is very important, because everything in the end is about ideas and innovation. So I feel like more than reading, it’s important to live as much life as possible, and by that I mean, travelling with your friends, partying, visiting temples, spending time with family and such common activities. I feel like so much of life and so much of economics of observation lies in changing jobs, moving to new cities for work, seeing new places, new culture, new ways of doing things, and new processes. I try my best to be a part of as many field based projects as I can, and by field I mean going to different states, interacting with different people and doing different things and doing different courses. I feel like that just really gives your mind so much perspective and helps you become a better researcher because I don’t think just reading other ideas or academic papers can actually make you innovate. Especially in India, where everything is about grassroots and whatever we do has to translate into something that is useful for the people. Whatever research is, if it is not useful in any way, I don’t think it’s going to be relevant and if you’re spending so much time and energy into something, somebody should be able to firstly understand it, secondly they should be able to use it and thirdly it should be able to become commercial. This is something I read in one of my innovation electives in post grad, that there is no point of an innovation that cannot become commercial. And by commercial we don’t just mean money-wise, we mean its ability to reach a lot of people, a lot of places and actually solve the kind of problems that it is seeking to. So I feel like whatever research we’re doing, it should have the ability to reach the masses. And the best way to do such relevant research is to really just live as much life as we can and see as much world from our own eyes.