1.
The agony and the ecstasy of
storytelling
Maria Stone
Convox 2015
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/03/creatures-of-
causality.html
http://lifehacker.com/5965703/the-science-of-storytelling-why-
telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains

2.
Abstract
Full disclosure: good story telling is a skill I don’t have. I’ve always been a bit
suspicious about those who can spin a good tale. Yet, story telling is what keeps our
attention best, and what makes presentations meaningful and memorable.
Neuroscience now points to the probably obvious fact that we are built to process
stories, and this is the preferred mode of processing information for humans…
So why not spin a tale? The very capacity that makes humans process stories well
makes us incredibly biased—we see causality where there is none, and we don’t seek
evidence to the contrary of what we believe. In short, we are super-impressionable
and not very critical—especially when it comes to good stories.
But there is more to this than that… Human race has exploited its ability to see
connections, and great innovations come from this ability.. Can we change reality by
simply telling a story?

3.
Lately, I’ve been fascinated with
storytelling…
…and here is why…
– Once upon the time, I was a social/cognitive scientist
Who was taught how impressionable and easily biased we are
by compelling stories
– Yet, I discovered that storytelling is one of the most
effective ways to engage your audience
Because humans are hard-wired to respond to stories
– So now I want to tell you the story…
About the dangers and the joys of using story telling
…and so far this story has no end, happy or otherwise…

4.
Who uses stories?
• Well obviously, the creative types
– Writers, journalists, movie makers
• But also
– Bankers?
– Entrepreneurs?
– Scientists?
– Cavemen?

5.
Here is our banker…

6.
…and here is the whole website
dedicated to teaching storytelling to
entrepreneurs…

7.
…even scientists think of storytelling…

8.
First, what is a story?
• A story is something that has a spine
– It has the beginning
– Builds to a climax
– And then has a resolution
– It ties things together, in “one thing led to another”
kind of way
--sort of implies “causality”?
“A story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a
connection of cause and effect.”

9.
Other than that, all stories are
different…
Some rely on vivid details and metaphors,
others do not
Some are long, some are very short
Some are very visual, others are not…
Some are true, and some are made up…

10.
Yet they all have one thing in common
• They engage and impact the audience
– They are very memorable
– They feel as though we lived through them
– They have the power to shape the re-usable narrative
that we pass on to people
• We feel like we perceived cause in effect
directly…
– And neuroscience supports this feeling
• Our brains have more areas active during storytelling
• Our brains look just like speakers’ brains during storytelling

11.
…but here is the bad
We are hard-wired to engage with stories
We see causality where there isn’t evidence for
it [as michotte demo shows]
Our minds are designed to make up stories and
to see logical chains where there may not be
ones
We are guilty of “confirmation bias”—once we
see it one way, we are hesitant to challenge that
way of seeing “it”

12.
One particularly illustrative example…
Nassim Taleb noted how ridiculous this is in his book The
Black Swan. In the hours after former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13th, 2003,
Bloomberg News blared the headline, "U.S. TREASURIES
RISE; HUSSEIN CAPTURE MAY NOT CURB TERRORISM."
Thirty minutes later, bond prices retreated and
Bloomberg altered their headline: "U.S. TREASURIES FALL;
HUSSEIN CAPTURE BOOSTS ALLURE OF RISKY ASSETS." A
more correct headline might have been: "U.S.
TREASURIES FLUCTUATE AS THEY ALWAYS DO; HUSSEIN
CAPTURE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM
WHATSOEVER," but that isn't what editors want to post,
nor what people want to read.

13.
So I struggle with this daily…
On the one hand, I want to convince and entertain,
compel to action… “Telling to win”
On the other hand, I am worried about introducing
bias and becoming blind to seeing alternatives
• …and just to complicate things… some fantastic
examples of product development are about
making fiction come to life…
– Because we can exploit human weakness for stories to
sell them a product vision

14.
Some even go really far with this
whole storytelling thing…
We are entering the era of conceptual age or
some shit like that… and only those of us wired
for empathy, creativity and storytelling will
continue to be employed…
Forget the left side of your brain with its detail
orientation, logical thinking, and alike…
To me, this sounds (potentially) as a road to
extinction.. Who/what will keep us in check as
we revolve in fantasy of our own or buy into
someone else’s fantasies?

15.
and…
Good story frequently doesn’t take off, as many
useless paid TV programs show…
There is more to creating a product that will take off
than being a snake oil salesman..
What is it?
– Is it putting storytelling at the heart of building a
product, as many suggest?
“Just as you can’t put lipstick on a pig, a startup
can’t mask a bad product with good storytelling.”

16.
I don’t have a good conclusion here…
So use storytelling to inspire and engage..
Beware of its seductive nature…
…and I will wonder for now if my stories harm or
help every time I tell a story…