Literature Review

How do you wander the digital stacks? I found a book on the History of Mathematics while wandering the stacks of a university library. Who would have even suspected that such a book existed … certainly not a 19 year-old kid doing his homework. The digital library is a powerful tool, but it does not allow wandering very well. When we search we find lots of “near hits” that are similar to wandering. So perhaps it is not less accessible, but merely differently accessible.

When reviewing the literature how do you really do it? You begin will two things (1) keywords, and (2) your own books. The keywords will tell you what to search for. This will pull in a broad set of materials. The books you already own will give you references that others have used. These are the focused results of other researchers. They should help you focus and dig deeper by author, institution, or specific jargon terms that you do not know yet. (I just learned about service-based learning from an AOM journal.)

Ideas do not grow on trees or even in individual minds. Most of us are too stupid to create something really brilliant. So we make up for it by studying the ideas of a hundred other fellow idiots and finding some way to contribute a verse. This is not an insult, it is just an acknowledgement of the Bell curve. It is crowded in the middle and sparse on the leading edge. Like a bureaucracy we are harnessing the mediocre talent of the masses to carry on a mission that is too big for individuals. Thank heavens for the middle of the Bell curve. We are the ones who pool our strengths to build something that is truly big and enduring … even though it will rule over us once constructed.

I am willing to review literature to collect the gems from the masses and the leaders and try to make one contribution. Studying the thoughts of others can also teach us to think better than we do now. The masses at the trailing edge get all of their thinking patterns for TV, we have to go to a better source if we want better patterns.

The how of literature review is less important than just doing it. Jump in with both hands, both feet, and both brain lobes … the water is rich.