You’d be surprised at how much ‘novel’ information you can gain on any particular subject by just reading public records and talking to people. People tend to be extremely siloed into their particular tasks, not having the time or energy to actually investigate the larger issue.
Literally this was how Marx did his research for Capital, though he focused alot more into mathematical modeling alongside that data.
However, much of this phenomena has to do with the fact that if someone within the organization discovers it, then they are usually obligated to fix it, even if they didn’t cause it, which discourages most employee investigation and reporting of issues, especially ones that the bosses are keen on pushing.
You’d be surprised at how much ‘novel’ information you can gain on any particular subject by just reading public records and talking to people. People tend to be extremely siloed into their particular tasks, not having the time or energy to actually investigate the larger issue.
Literally this was how Marx did his research for Capital, though he focused alot more into mathematical modeling alongside that data.
However, much of this phenomena has to do with the fact that if someone within the organization discovers it, then they are usually obligated to fix it, even if they didn’t cause it, which discourages most employee investigation and reporting of issues, especially ones that the bosses are keen on pushing.