<!-- TITLE: How To Be A Sociologist --> # Culture + Spirituality, Superstition, and Legends + The common utility of a pattern of thought + Related: The reproduction of such myths + Wow so interesting: + (current) Mind Control Manipulation of Mainstream Music - Mark Devlin + (current) Quartz crystal + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_superstitions + gotta be careful about going native into crazy thought processes! but this seems like a good direction # Self-other. Empathy + Knowing others, and what others know of you + How much do individuals really know the internal states of each others' minds? + How does this understanding develop (i.e. what modulates the extent of understanding?) # Motivation I need to compile a list of interesting sociological phenomena. Otherwise I won't have anything to explain. I really want to be able to understand and explain the quite strange social world. And the best part of a good sociological analysis is the examples. I also want to understand what sociologists can explain, and what they're confused about. This requires a deep understanding of the dominant and functioning sociological theories. What do researchers mobilize to explain things? Maybe I could start a dictionary of these theories. **Are extremes interesting?** I think many sociologists would say the everyday interactions we engage in are interesting. It's a typical rhetorical move at least. **What's the ideal format?** This question is really, "what am I interested in"? I'm interested in the interactions of human beings, *but why?* I think I have to first understand why I'm interested to understand which interactions I'm most interested in. # Methodology ideas + Watch documentaries about people. + A choice problem. Which documentaries to watch? + Read ethnographies + Understand what is already known within academia about people. + Brainstorm first, to identify which social situations *should* be interesting + Inherent bias + Others may not have thought of these, though + Take a random sample! + Geographically + generate a random lat/lon and learn as much as you can about the individuals close + weighted random sample by population + Hierarchically by population + weighted random sample, by group size + Explore different contexts + Small group + Crowd dynamics + Chat rooms / online + Historical accounts / retrospectives + Autobiographies + Personal life, the real world + Find another individual who has compiled such stories + Topical + Start with a sociological topic of interest