Lots of interesting comments reminding me not to side 100% with something just because it was said by someone whose work I love. I have a degree in Applied Psy

Lots of interesting comments reminding me not to side 100% with something just because it was said by someone whose work I love. I have a degree in Applied Psychology so I have some idea about how stuff works, although perhaps not as much as someone who's done a PhD. Mastroianni didn't specify exactly what you should be investigating. Anything that involves hurting others is out of the question, be it medical research or psychological. But I guess there is literally no harm in observing the growth of the plants in your garden, the behaviour of the pigeons that visit your balcony every day, in conducting online surveys to guage attitudes and opinions (as long as the surveys are well-designed, a skill that can be learned online), putting a dead butterfly under a microscope and then sharing what you learned with the world. We can share such "findings" and observations without claiming that our research is on par with those done by professionals. As long as the ones sharing these notes and the ones reading them understand that amateur exploration of an idea isn't a replacement for rigourous research, I see no harm in more people taking notice of the world around them and bringing other people's attention to it. Perhaps one of these amateur observations might be read by a professional, inspiring them to investigate it properly. As for me, I'm thinking of publishing the findings from my dissertation on my blog. I'm not interested in conducting research, but I do enjoy reading research papers and explaining their findings. I guess that counts too.