
How Stories Deceive - jseliger
http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/how-stories-deceive
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spodek
How ironic that the magazine that hosts Malcolm Gladwell would post a piece on
how effectively one can use stories to promote oneself, even (especially) if
you don't care about its accuracy.

His stories aren't of the sort of those in the article, but he's certainly no
stranger to abandoning accuracy in favor of a story, and profiting from it.

~~~
ktamura
While Gladwell himself is notorious for lack of factual rigor (as a former
math person, I especially wince at his "Igon value"), the New Yorker itself is
famous for its rigorous fact-checking. In this age of fast-food quality
writings littered with half-assed research or mere speculations, I appreciate
the time and the effort that the New Yorker team puts into their craft.

At the same time, the New Yorker is indeed known for their over-the-top
narratives. There's both pros and cons to this approach. For example, a great
work of literary journalism like "In Cold Blood" and "Hiroshima" were first
published on the New Yorker because of this editorial tendency. On the other
hand, their long-form content makes their subjects less approachable to a
large swath of English-reading (especially those who aren't native readers of
the language) population.

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2skep
This is precisely why every time someone pitches a business idea to me using a
story I flag it as one that requires addition validation of facts. Not because
I think all story tellers are charlatans (some definitely are)but because I
want to make sure that I compensate for the activation of the non-rational
parts of my brain.

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sarciszewski
I wonder how many people bought this story wholesale without fact-checking it?
:)

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TazeTSchnitzel
Reminds me a little of _Catch Me If You Can_.

