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During my studies at the School of Social Sciences at Cologne University, I earnedsome extraincome by doingsurvey work for a German pollinginstitute. Every week I drove out to meet preselected people to ask them questions ranging from sexual preferences to attitudes toward government. Meeting hundreds of strangers over the long period of my undergraduate and graduate studies changed my attitudes toward people as well as my appreciation for the social sciences. I found in many of my respondents much wisdom and curiosity, both of which were largely ignored by my research instruments. I was bound to my prestructured, standardized questionnaire and forced to use categories that my respondents felt inappropriately described their opinions and values. Remote from the actual field work, the social scientists of the polling institute used the numerical data to draw conclusions about people's feelings and …