# Anecdotes Can Unlock Scientific Puzzles by Jane Goodall > “[The Chimpanzees of Gombe] had all my scientific observations, but it also had all the stories, because a story, an anecdote, can be a very carefully recorded observation. It’s an anecdote, because you only see it once, but those anecdotes are sometimes the key to unlocking a puzzle.” > **— Jane Goodall**, *What It Means to Be Human, full interview transcript* ## Sources and Context - **Original publication:** [What It Means to Be Human](https://onbeing.org/programs/jane-goodall-what-it-means-to-be-human/) — full interview transcript; Brackets resolve Goodall's it to her book The Chimpanzees of Gombe named in the immediately preceding sentence. - **Exact original wording:** “And it had all my scientific observations, but it also had all the stories, because a story, an anecdote, can be a very carefully recorded observation. It’s an anecdote, because you only see it once, but those anecdotes are sometimes the key to unlocking a puzzle.” - **Editorial clarification:** Square brackets in the poster resolve a source antecedent. The unmodified words appear immediately above. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] - **Article:** [[articles/Maximum Truth Seeking, Maximum Ignorance Preserving|Maximum Truth Seeking, Maximum Ignorance Preserving]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] - [[wiki/Scientific Inference|Scientific Inference]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “[The Chimpanzees of Gombe] had all my scientific observations, but it also had all the stories, because a story, an anecdote, can be a very carefully recorded observation. It’s an anecdote, because you only see it once, but those anecdotes are sometimes the key to unlocking a puzzle.” — Jane Goodall, What It Means to Be Human https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-jane-goodall-anecdotes-unlock-scientific-puzzles ```