
What storytelling does to our brains - joeyespo
http://blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains
======
seanlinehan
About a year ago I starting becoming incredibly interested in making ideas
spread. I decided to read books on how to present myself and my ideas in a way
that builds my own credibility, trustworthiness, and helps people to take on
my ideas.

If you are interested in these things, I highly recommend _Made to Stick_ by
the Heath Brothers [1]. It focuses on the SUCCESs framework:

S - Short

U - Unexpected

C - Credible

C - Concrete

E - Emotional

S - Stories

They elaborate in excellent detail on each of these ideas and the acronym that
they coined is a perfect example.

In terms of building your own credibility, I suggest reading _How to Win
Friends and Influence People_ by Dale Carnegie. [2] This book is instrumental
in understanding the basic concepts that can have a material impact on your
life. I think that Autobiography of Ben Franklin [3] teaches a few key lessons
in the use of diffidence that harmonizes well with Carnegie's ideas.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-
Others/dp/140...](http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-
Others/dp/1400064287)

[2] [http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-
People/dp/06...](http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-
People/dp/0671027034)

[3] [http://www.classicly.com/download-autobiography-of-
benjamin-...](http://www.classicly.com/download-autobiography-of-benjamin-
franklin-pdf)

------
iyulaev
Tyler Cowen has a great TEDx talk (from a while back!) that hits many of the
same points, in an arguably clearer way.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoEEDKwzNBw>

------
NathanKP
_Our brain learns to ignore certain overused words and phrases that are used
to make stories awesome_

This applies tremendously in marketing, and is one of the reasons why
marketing speak has to change constantly. Otherwise people start ignoring the
cliché ad speak.

~~~
joe_the_user
If only the author used this insight to look at the "what X does to our
brains" framework that he organized his post with.

------
justjimmy
"Make others come up with your idea. / The next time you struggle with getting
people on board with your projects and ideas, simply tell them a story, where
the outcome is that doing what you had in mind, is the best thing to do."

Sounds like Inception!

~~~
rheide
I have a friend who does this to me occasionally. It pisses me off. Just get
to the point, man! ;) When you know the magic trick, and when you can see the
motivation while the story is being told, it's a lot less impressive.

~~~
pycassa
well, story telling has its place and timing. If all he does is telling
stories people. It becomes annoying, unless he is really good at it.

------
klutometis
I decided to abandon bullet-based decks a few years ago for images and
narratives (even when dealing with programming), followed by a live-coding
demonstration; anecdotally, the response to talks I've given in this format
has been great.

Years later, people will spontaneously write and reminisce about such and such
a talk on e.g. extending Roxygen.

This is, incidentally, the same format as my daughter's bed-time stories;
coincidence?

------
runevault
There's actually a book on writing that came out somewhat recently that talks
about this topic in great detail. Was an interesting read from a writer
perspective as well as general thoughts on how storytelling impacts people.

If you're interested you can search for Wired for Story.

~~~
rooster8
Thanks for sharing. I've been looking for a book like this for a few weeks.

------
eggoa
So, we're vulnerable to persuasion by storytelling. Try to stay skeptical when
someone tells you a compelling story.

~~~
bennesvig
Also pay attention to the story that you tell yourself. We often create
elaborate stories to justify to ourselves why we can't do something.

------
bhntr3
[http://www.amazon.com/Wired-Story-Writers-Science-
Sentence/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Wired-Story-Writers-Science-
Sentence/dp/1607742454/)

Wired for Story is a great book about the science of story. I think it applies
to a lot more than writing.

~~~
DenisM
Bought the book on your recommendation. Thanks.

------
joe_the_user
OK, we know language is good communication medium for dealing with humans,
hopefully. Metaphor, drama, sensory-rich descriptions and so-forth are good
tools for the language. These may or may not work well put together into a
story.

And consider, a "hook" like "what X does to your brain" indeed combines
interest-in-your-favorite-person-yourself and the crunchy authority of
science. Those can work well till they get old and start to sound thin,
formulaic and manipulative.

My next blog post will be: "What crude simplifications do to ours brains"

------
charleshaanel
" Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any
other area in our brain, that we would use when experiencing the events of the
story are too."

It's good to be reminded of this...

------
R_Edward
_Try for example to reduce the number adjectives or complicated nouns in a
presentation or article and exchange them with more simple, yet heartfelt
language._

But... what if one has developed a rich vocabulary, and truly does feel those
more complicated sentence structures and Five-dollar words from the heart? Is
it better to dumb down my storytelling language so the listener can more
rapidly assimilate the message, if by doing so, it is no longer my linguistic
passion that ignites the tale?

~~~
alexknowshtml
Are you writing for you, or for your reader? Which do you think matters more?

Also, see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_prose>

~~~
R_Edward
Not writing; speaking. Now it's not as if I deliberately employ sesquipedalian
graphology for the express purpose of obfuscation. But I've spent a lifetime
developing a rich, meaty vocabulary, and I'll be damned if I'm going to talk
like a public high school sophomore with a sub-20 ACT score.

Just sayin'.

~~~
CamperBob2
I am (or at least _was_ ) an experienced assembly programmer. I'm familiar
with numerous obscure x86 opcodes that take dozens of machine cycles to
execute.

This knowledge comes in handy when reading other peoples' code, but I don't
use those instructions myself. Why? Because I know how to achieve the same
effect through carefully-scheduled combinations of smaller, faster opcodes.

Exactly the same principle applies in English composition. Use an awkward or
unusual word, or a flowery modifier? That's an L1 cache miss. It'll cost a few
cycles of wasted execution time, if viewed in terms of the reader's attention
span. How about a word that sends the reader to the dictionary? That's an L2
miss. Those can waste thousands of cycles.

You can tolerate a few L1 misses here and there, but those L2 misses that have
to be fetched from DRAM will make your "code" run like shit.

~~~
R_Edward
One of my team members actually ran out on her lunch break to buy a
dictionary. She told me this a month or two after the fact. She needed to look
up something I'd written in an e-mail. I apologized for causing her to go to
the extra effort--and expense--but she wouldn't accept it. She enjoyed the
verbal challenge and the sense that came with it of becoming a more literate
person.

Good communication is not always about passing the message in the optimal way.

------
samspot
When I read this I realized that ministers have been using this tactic
effectively for hundreds of years (if not more--I have only read from people
from the last 400 years or so). I think this component is what is missing in
my own presentations. I have never liked telling stories but maybe it is time
to learn a new tactic.

~~~
MartinCron
Even if you look at Jesus as a secular historical figure (Thomas Jefferson-
style) it's pretty clear that he was a master storyteller.

------
pattisapu
"Picture Work" <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41505/41505-h/41505-h.htm>

------
ekianjo
Don't you like it when a blog post about storytelling finishes with the
obligatory 5 lines on "oh by the way, we want comments to make it seem like
our blog is hugely popular. tell us your comments on the subject!"

Looks like they forgot to tell the story of why comments would enhance their
content. Fail.

~~~
tobydownton
Wow. The first comment on HN in a long while that made we wish for a down
arrow.

