In a previous working life, I inhabited one main world for almost a decade. I knew how the thinking about it worked, how to make decisions (or at least some principles for trying). Then I jumped ship. And now I get to be a social anthropologist of websites.
These days, what I end up writing about (for money) is as varied as the number of businesses or organisations that happen to pick the web company I do writing work for. Some of those worlds are familiar: those that include food, or tourism, for example.
And others require a much bigger leap of comprehension to get inside their worlds, and see their business, and their opportunities, through their eyes – but also those of outsiders, like me.
I get to wear both hats – trying to understand the new reader who comes to their site, and the intentions of the site owners, and (hopefully) finding a middle way to respect both in what I write.
I remember reading actual social anthropology texts in my first year at university. Three or four different cultures – some closer to home than others, but all with very different ways of seeing the world.
We looked at topics like magic, or ways of keeping clean, or how to treat an older child when a younger one comes into your family. Some of the other cultures’ practices were radically different from my own responses, but part of the fascination was understanding why they made the choices they did.
I sold the books when I stopped the course, and I kind of regret that now. I’d like to make the journey into those worlds again, though I could probably identify the books at some point, and do just that.
What has stayed with me though is the role of the social anthropologist: in the midst of it all, living, being human, and trying to make sense of everything as it happens before them.
I can feel a bit like that when I approach a website that’s for a subject matter that’s completely (or pretty nearly) new to me. I discover familiar words used in new ways. I get my head round some new jargon, make guesses at acronyms that may or may not be explained later.
In other words, I start to build a sense of the culture of that ‘new world’. What’s crucial. What’s less important. What’s distinctive for that ‘tribe’. And also what I uncover while getting to know them: the things that they may take for granted, that actually are pretty amazing.
It’s the reverse of my earlier post, really. Sometimes, what is everyday to the company is worth shouting about. Worth rearranging the ideas for, so they stand out more strongly. And I relate to them, because of having ‘lived with them’ in the reading of the site, the getting to know you stage.
The reading, on these occasions, is quite hard work – grappling with concepts when you don’t quite know the framework. Taking in words, when you later realise that they might mean something a bit different.
But when the reading is done, it’s a great feeling. I feel like I’ve mastered a new subject – in reality, I’ve skimmed the surface, but I feel like I can now swim along in that new ocean.
That process of mastery, the satisfaction in it – I wonder if that’s why autodictats often do so well for themselves. They’ve taught themselves, they’ve taken in new information, and become new themselves in the process. Why wouldn’t you go back for more?
Fortunately, I get to do just that. I wouldn’t be able to claim a specialist subject for Mastermind. But I might just do a bit better on a general knowledge round – and that I can certainly enjoy.