Watch Out! Someone Is Throwing Rocks At Story!
Just as story is racking up positive attention in our mainstream culture, someone is throwing rocks at it.
Economist, Tyler Cowen, argued in his recent TED presentation that when you hear a simple story, something isn’t right. Here are some of the highlights I heard from his talk entitled “Be Suspicious of Stories.”
“People use your love of story to manipulate you.”
“Every time you are telling yourself a good vs evil story, you are lowering your IQ by 10 points.”
“Most narratives tend to be too simple.”
“Life is a mess.”
“We are imposing order on the mess (life) we observe.”
“Listening to stories is like feeding our brains candies.”
Many of us like sweets. Then if listening to stories is like feeding candies to our brains, then Cowen is telling us to stop indulging ourselves. No wonder a few online comments weren’t kind to his message. Here is one example.
“Quick question: Would you rather be seated for dinner next to a good story-teller or an economist? Sorry, Tyler…”
Though not exactly what I like to hear as a Story Facilitator, I have to agree with Cowen’s thesis that life IS messy. We have an inherent need to make sense of things. The temptation to accept a simple and sense-making narrative is far too irresistable. Cognitive scientist and artificial intelligence designer, Roger Shank, argued in his book “Tell Me A Story” that it is our ability to tell stories that makes human intelligences special.
But not everyone who tells us a great story has the best intention. Sometimes they want something from us or even hurt us. So what to do? Cowen has the following recommendations.
“You cannot get out of the pattern of thinking in terms of story. But you can improve the extend to which you think in terms of story.”
“What are the stories that no one has incentive to tell? Start telling yourself those (stories) and see if any of your decisions changes.”
“The kinds of story you should be most suspicious of are the one that you like the most.”
“Be more comfortable with messy.”
If I were to guess Cowen’s intention, it isn’t so much to undermine the power of story as it is to highlight its impact on us – the audience. So it is instructive for all of us to listen and think critically to the stories that others feed us. In fact, one of my professional mantras is “To become a great storyteller, one must first become a great story collector.”
Listening critically has always been core to storytelling. So next Thursday, I will be facilitating a workshop on aggressive listening. If you are in Chicago and can attend, send me a note. It’s free! If you can’t but are interested in the content, send me a note too so I can send handouts/ post workshop highlights to you.
