Architect Louis Kahn is famous for guiding his students in a master class at UPenn to be humble before their materials:

"You say to a brick, 'What do you want, brick?' And brick says to you, 'I like an arch.' And you say to brick, 'Look, I want one, too, but arches are expensive and I can use a concrete lintel.' And then you say: 'What do you think of that, brick?' Brick says: 'I like an arch.'"

Similarly, we need to humble ourselves before our materials and ask them what they want to be and to say. When we fail to do that, we are probably introducing one kind of bias or another.

Let's always ask our primary sources what they want to say. And then listen -- carefully. And be open to how they want to be presented.