The Talese Method Turns Listening Into Research

The ordinary model of journalism is procedural: collect information, organize it, express it. Talese matters because he breaks that model open. Journalism can become literature Source trail 0:00 So this is a very exciting day because we are officially starting the Gay to Lease journalism course. Traditionally, we've understood journalism and research as this method of just collecting information, organizing it,... , and research can become a creative, imaginative way of engaging reality and people Source trail 0:00 So this is a very exciting day because we are officially starting the Gay to Lease journalism course. Traditionally, we've understood journalism and research as this method of just collecting information, organizing it,... .

The obstacle is educational habit. Students are trained to wait for instruction, not to explore. That is why the course has to begin before technique, at the level of permission: the researcher has to stop acting like the obedient student Lens point education-soul-game Research restores exploration when education trains students to stop waiting for instructions, listen until people become visible, reflect with craft discipline, and notice contrasts in the world that obedient information handling would miss. Source trail 0:00 So this is a very exciting day because we are officially starting the Gay to Lease journalism course. Traditionally, we've understood journalism and research as this method of just collecting information, organizing it,... who only does what the teacher says.

The method is not presented as a theory Talese learned in school. It is located at home, in a tailoring business in New Jersey. The mother took care of clients and the business; the father made the clothes. The household becomes a split laboratory for research: one side faces people, the other side faces craft. Source trail 1:201:33 His mother took care of the business while his father made the clothes. So what does this have to do with exploration and reflection?Okay? Well, his mother was responsible for the business aspects. So these very wealthy people would come to the shop and order very nice suits.

The mother has to deal with rich, demanding clients, but her strategy is not performance. The classroom guess is that friendship comes from talking. The correction is immediate: wrong, not talk, the opposite, listen. Lens point education-soul-game Research restores exploration when education trains students to stop waiting for instructions, listen until people become visible, reflect with craft discipline, and notice contrasts in the world that obedient information handling would miss. Source trail 1:49 And her job was to deal with them. But it's actually very hard to deal with rich people. They can be very demanding. So her strategy was to become their friend. And how do you become someone's friend? What do you do in... Research begins when the interviewer gives up the need to fill the room with the self.

She talks by listening. Source trail 1:49 And her job was to deal with them. But it's actually very hard to deal with rich people. They can be very demanding. So her strategy was to become their friend. And how do you become someone's friend? What do you do in... The phrase matters because it turns attention into action. A client entering the living room is first and foremost a friend Source trail 1:49 And her job was to deal with them. But it's actually very hard to deal with rich people. They can be very demanding. So her strategy was to become their friend. And how do you become someone's friend? What do you do in... , and the posture is simple: I am interested in you. Exploration is not wandering for novelty. It is curiosity serious enough to let another person talk and talk and talk. Source trail 1:49 And her job was to deal with them. But it's actually very hard to deal with rich people. They can be very demanding. So her strategy was to become their friend. And how do you become someone's friend? What do you do in...

The other room supplies the second half of the method. Tailoring is precise, exact, meticulous, disciplined, and patient. Source trail 3:103:323:36 And so you can say that this is exploration. Curiosity. Okay? Exploration. But in the other room, the father would by himself sit and work on the clothes. Right? I am not sure if you have seen Taylor's work. They are ve...They are very exact. They are very meticulous. A person can spend days in the room working on one piece. Source trail 3:36 They are very disciplined. They are very patient. So you can spend days and days in this room just working on a topic. This is the only piece of suit. Right? This is the idea of reflection. The pursuit of perfection. So... That is the image of reflection: the mind returns to the material until craft becomes visible as care.

The formula is compact enough to become portable: exploration is the pursuit of curiosity Source trail 3:36 They are very disciplined. They are very patient. So you can spend days and days in this room just working on a topic. This is the only piece of suit. Right? This is the idea of reflection. The pursuit of perfection. So... , and reflection is the pursuit of perfection. Source trail 3:36 They are very disciplined. They are very patient. So you can spend days and days in this room just working on a topic. This is the only piece of suit. Right? This is the idea of reflection. The pursuit of perfection. So... The first sends the researcher outward toward people; the second pulls the work inward toward patient revision and exactness.

The point is not limited to writing. Source trail 3:36 They are very disciplined. They are very patient. So you can spend days and days in this room just working on a topic. This is the only piece of suit. Right? This is the idea of reflection. The pursuit of perfection. So... The same skills should make students more creative, more effective researchers, and useful even in the sciences. So the introduction ends with an assignment, not a slogan: go around Beijing with a camera.

Talese's New York becomes the pattern. New York is a city of things unnoticed and a city of contrast Source trail 3:364:40 They are very disciplined. They are very patient. So you can spend days and days in this room just working on a topic. This is the only piece of suit. Right? This is the idea of reflection. The pursuit of perfection. So...New York is a city of contrast. I want you to do the same thing for Beijing. Take your camera and take pictures of things that other people would not notice. Okay? And take pictures of things that are contrast of each o... ; Beijing must be looked at the same way. The exercise is to find what other people would not notice and to see what contrasts with what. Curiosity becomes an optical discipline. Lens point education-soul-game Research restores exploration when education trains students to stop waiting for instructions, listen until people become visible, reflect with craft discipline, and notice contrasts in the world that obedient information handling would miss. Source trail 4:40 New York is a city of contrast. I want you to do the same thing for Beijing. Take your camera and take pictures of things that other people would not notice. Okay? And take pictures of things that are contrast of each o...