ThinkingAboutTheThinkable

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-World-Policing-Difference-Ethnography/dp/022649764X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514381162&sr=8-1&keywords=fassin+police+didier Didier Fassin has edited a book about Writing the World of Policing, The Difference Ethnography Makes, Chicago 2017. The above link to amazon.com will enable you to read the beginning of the Introduction, an argument for why ethnography (vs. participant observation, fieldwork, ..., and vs. conventional social science statistical analysis of a data set) is crucial, and not only in police studies. Ethnography demands long times among those you are studying, and an openness to surprise given your prejudices. Hypotheses come after the writing and thinking.  He provides an elegant justification for ethnography in the public policy and urban planning fields. He also has out another edited book,  If Truth Be Told, The Politics of Public Ethnography https://www.amazon.com/Writing-World-Policing-Difference-Ethnography...

Often, your referee will ask you to draft the letter of reference which they will then edit. 1. Don't be too modest . If you are the best at something say it. The referee can always tone it down. 2. Be concrete and specific . For any qualities you claim are important, concrete specific examples will give weight to what is claimed. 3. Letters should be appropriate for their purpose . Hiring letters are very different than those for a fellowship or a grant. If you can address the particulars of the addressee's interests, so much the better. You should not be slavish about this, but if they are interested in technology and the arts, you surely want to claim the candidate's relevance to the topic. 4. There is likely to be a Personal Statement or letter of application . The referee should have that in hand, so that claims in the Personal Statement can be supported (or, sometimes, not supported). 5. If you are drafting letters for several referees, be sure each letter is u...

The lesson here is that counting is related to the symmetry of what one is counting; the harmonies of nature, its resonant tones, are related to counting; and the counting as expressed in the resonant or main frequencies of a system will tell you about its geometry (or shape). Mathematics demands precise statements of claims, or of what is to be proven, just because slight deviations might not be the case or at least not proven by the current means. You might be able to prove something weaker for a less precise statement, but often you want the strongest statement possible. In effect, an identity may have a very sharp profile. Moreover, a claim may well have several different ways of being proven, in effect it is an identity in a manifold presentation of profiles, so to speak. So when I am tempted to see more general lessons from mathematical work, it is surely the case that by being more general I am likely to be sacrificing what can be actually proven,  but at the same ...