ABSTRACT
Somehow, we do not think we have convinced you. We think you would find this scenario a little ridiculous, not least because all the questionnaire or interview responses in the world about how these things are done would be no substitute for simply experiencing them. No matter how detailed the instructions or how meticulous the description of successful car-driving or penalty-taking, the only way to understand truly what is involved in these activities – what they mean to the people who do them, what they are ‘all about’ – is to watch as they are done, to see them from their perspective, to share the activities with others who are competent, possibly to try them out yourself, to practise, slowly but surely to hone your skills, to make silly errors this time but to get it right next time, and so on.
