How David Lynch Can Make Your Research Better

Life is full of odd happenstances.

For example, I’ve learned about two new measuring devices that I’d never heard about before over the past 24 hours.

That’s weird, right?

I think I can go for maybe an entire year or longer and not hear of any new kind of measuring implement, but over the past 24 hours from two different places, I have heard about two.

It got me thinking about measurement and how clinical it can seem at one moment and how achingly pulpy and alive it can seem then next. 

Clinical:

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” – Peter Drucker

Pulpy:

“Why is the measure of love loss?” – Jeanette Winterson

Metrics are important. So important, in fact, that figuring out if you are measuring the right thing can be the difference between asking a question that will give you the answers you need and giving you fluff.

Metrics Gone Wrong and Asking Better Questions

The Checking Stick

The first new measuring stick I heard about yesterday was a reference to a new item the wonderfully eccentric filmmaker David Lynch recently made in his workshop – his “checking stick.” 

It is a stick that he designed to help the user connect to the artwork they are working on and to identify which area needs focus. 

He designed it with a magnet that hangs down from a string that one can use to connect to the heart or head in order to bring measured focus to your work. 

You can check out his explanation in this video. Please watch long enough to see Lynch look at the camera and explain that one can just use their intuition rather than a checking stick as he then goes back to showing off his creation in action. This absurdity is why I love Lynch’s work so much. 

We never really need the stick. In fact, the stick may just be a fun distraction and not a tool we need at all.

What we really need is clarity. We must identify what answers we’re looking for so we can create the right questions. It’s not about the stick. It’s about connecting with the purpose. 

The Norma Nilotica

The second measuring device I learned about was the Norma Nilotica – a rod for measuring the depth of the Nile River that one can see carried in the constellation of Aquarius the Water Bearer. 

The Norma Nilotica, a nilometer, was a tool that would provide some idea to people along the Nile about whether food would be plentiful or not. They prayed for the flooding of the Nile, which would make the land fertile and give them an easier time of life for the year following.

Such an important tool for over one thousand years and today fewer than two dozen exist. 

Did a better device come along to replace the need for the nilometer or did the need for measuring the Nile itself change? 

It turns out that the Nile shifted course and kept inhabitants of the land guessing, the locations of power moving with the location of the most fertile parts of the river. 

Things change. Maybe so significantly that it renders the landscape you have come to know so well, as a new puzzle. 

Before we use the tools and devices we’ve come to rely on time and time again, let’s be sure they are still measuring what needs to be measured. It could turn out that we need to think about things in a whole new way.

Sounding “Mark Twain”

Finally, learning about these two measuring devices I’d never heard of before made me think of a third measuring tool that has a personal connection to me. 

Depth sounding to establish safe passage for water travel was a measurement taught to us in my Missouri grade school due to its connection to the state’s beloved writer Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain).  

“Mark twain” is considered the lowest depth for safe water travel. The way they would determine the depth was by taking the measurement of a mark with a “hand lead” that consisted of a rope with a heavy weight fastened to its end.

This is where trust comes into the picture for me because a lot depended on the competence of the person testing the levels. Did Georgie over there with the hand weight know what he was doing when he was assigned to testing the waters? When he yelled, “mark twain” was it truly safe?

As we try to move through life making decisions, some of those decisions being based on the knowledge and expertise of others, we must decide how to determine the trustworthiness of the assessments we’ve been given. [If you want to hear a really great discussion about asking better questions for qualitative research, check out this interview.]

By thinking of the lessons these three tools of measurement can teach us (special thanks to David Lynch for the inspiration!), we can learn how to improve our research. By identifying the answers we need (without getting distracted by the noise around us), we can arrive at better questions to ask. 

Or maybe we can just make a pointy stick, call it our “focus maker,” and give it our best shot. Choose your own adventure!

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