Conventional ways of thinking about access mislead researchers into thinking that, once they have cracked through the black box's wall, knowledge will be waiting there for the taking. But access is not an event; it is the ongoing navigation of relationships. Access has a texture, and this texture -- patterns of disclosure and refusal -- can be instructive in itself. When I interviewed junior employees, they were often worried about what they were allowed to say to me, even when I had signed the same nondisclosure agreements they had. In contrast, CEOs and founders usually spoke quite freely, sure in their ability to define the parameters of the permissible and to draw the corporation's limits into strict, punishing existence at will. The social structure of the firm shimmered into view through these interactions.