THE MISCONCEPTION: You make sense of life through rational contemplation.
THE TRUTH: You make sense of life through narrative.
This is your narrative bias—a bias in that when given the option, you prefer to give and receive
information in narrative format. You prefer tales with the structure you’ve come to understand as the
backbone of good storytelling. Three to five acts, an opening with the main character forced to face
adversity, a turning point where that character chooses to embark on an adventure in an unfamiliar
world, and a journey in which the character grows as a person and eventually wins against great odds
thanks to that growth. According to mythologist Joseph Campbell, that is pretty much every story ever
written, except for the tragedies. Those are cautionary tales in which the protagonist fails to grow,
chooses poorly, submits to weakness, and as a result loses. You enjoy both versions of the story
because that’s how you make sense of your own life. That is how you boil down and simplify who
you are, why you are here, what you’ve accomplished, and where you are heading. Books, movies,
games, lectures—every form of information transfer seems better when couched in the language of
storytelling.
THE TRUTH: You make sense of life through narrative.
This is your narrative bias—a bias in that when given the option, you prefer to give and receive
information in narrative format. You prefer tales with the structure you’ve come to understand as the
backbone of good storytelling. Three to five acts, an opening with the main character forced to face
adversity, a turning point where that character chooses to embark on an adventure in an unfamiliar
world, and a journey in which the character grows as a person and eventually wins against great odds
thanks to that growth. According to mythologist Joseph Campbell, that is pretty much every story ever
written, except for the tragedies. Those are cautionary tales in which the protagonist fails to grow,
chooses poorly, submits to weakness, and as a result loses. You enjoy both versions of the story
because that’s how you make sense of your own life. That is how you boil down and simplify who
you are, why you are here, what you’ve accomplished, and where you are heading. Books, movies,
games, lectures—every form of information transfer seems better when couched in the language of
storytelling.
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