

Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains - speeder
http://lifehacker.com/5965703/the-science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains

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Tycho
I've been trying to learn a lot about investment finance in the last 18
months. I find that I probably learn more from light, non fiction texts like
Barbarians at the Gate and Liar's Poker. Why? Because all the strange
abstractions of finance are easier to grasp when you have a sense for why they
needed to be created. You get the story behind them.

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maebert
Sometime I'm going to write a piece "Why you should not follow links that
include the word 'brain'".

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agilord
That'd really block away the potential cognitive interest, wouldn't it? At
least you could name it like "Why this is the last link you will follow that
contains the word 'brain'."

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jonsen
Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers
from the Very First Sentence:

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

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jessriedel
Ugh. I got into a spirited disagreement on HN a few months back sparked by how
much I hate when magazines like _Wired_ feel the need to entice me to read
something mildly analytic by interweaving it with a human story. The author
can't just talk about a law and its potential for unintended consequences, or
even just the law and specific examples of people it hurt. He had to tell me a
full narrative about Bob Jones and his green bicycle that means so much to him
and the overcast clouds on the fateful day he had his front tire stolen when
he was already late for work! I find myself skipping from paragraph to
paragraph looking for actual analysis.

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purplelobster
If you're selling a product, is it best to tell a story of why it's useful or
just to show what it does and let the product do the talking?

Personally, if I go to a site and I have to sign in/up to get to the
application, then I'm less likely to do it than if I was immediately logged
into a guest account, perhaps with some pointer bubbles explaining what to
do/what you can do.

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agilord
I'm pretty sure that there are harmful and undesired things that activate the
brain too, so I'm not sure that activating the brain is the ultimate goal.

Why not concentrate on why stories are powerful? E.g. exploring their strength
of making connections and emotions...

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mattryanharris
Google does this quite frequently with their commercials for products like
Google Hangout, search, e-mail, calendar, and more.

They seem to show ways on how to use the service rather then telling you all
the stats about it.

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elchief
Anybody got a good "storytelling for dummies" reference? Thanks!

