the elder omo sapiens hubble’s towards
the fire the younglings gather around
him and sit down in silence they’re
easier to hear from the most famous
hunter of the tribe he wants to impart
his knowledge he clears his throat and
begins there is a 25% probability of
finding predators near the river big
felines run 50% faster than humans trees
double the lifespan of helpless hunters
poor younglings do you think they’re
gonna remember anything have you been in
a situation like that where you were
bored to death in a presentation and
what about that poor hunter
he spent a lifetime honing his skills as
a hunter and way too many hours on that
power point and yet his experience is
going to die with him because he
couldn’t communicate it if you’ve ever
been in a situation like that where you
try to teach something to somebody but
you you can’t get him to remember
anything say I if you’ve ever tried to
convince somebody of something with
arguments with reason but they don’t
reason they don’t listen to arguments
say I this has happened to all of us
being right is not enough we need to be
able to communicate in it for that facts
and reason just don’t make it that’s why
the most famous dead speakers in the
world only spend 25% of their talks
telling facts and 65% telling stories
and their write stories are two to ten
times more memorable than facts let me
repeat that because I just give you a
fact so it’s not very memorable
stories are two to ten times more
memorable in facts alone and that’s why
you’re the most influential books in
history our series of stories and
they’ve spawned the biggest religions in
the world stories are powerful so why
don’t we use them more in our everyday
life to communicate we should be using
them all the time but in fact we use
facts we use reason and I think there’s
two reasons for that number one we’re
not really sure why stories captivate so
much
I mean we’re rational animals we use the
facts every day can’t we just keep using
that and the second one is we don’t
really sure how to craft stories easily
and I ask myself these two questions all
of my life my father is a filmmaker and
we talked about stories at school at
home all my life I studied some script
writing in grad school and even wrote a
book about stories and story structure
and that learned T taught me how to
cross stories but not why stories
captivate and the answer came to me from
my job I have to read a lot of
neuroscience for it and the neuroscience
of stories is crazy so I’m gonna tell
you about it but instead of just telling
you about it we’re gonna do a little
experiment okay as I tell you about the
neuroscience of stories I want you to
analyze what’s going on in your brains
okay all right let’s go if I tell you
bipedal motion what are you thinking
maybe walking okay usually your brains
are trying to decipher the words maybe
put them together it’s a couple of parts
in your brain that are getting activated
it’s different for all of us we’re
trying to decipher the words picture
them and it’s hard if instead I tell you
about a group of women who are running
and they’re pushing with their feet
against the ground as hard as they can
their muscles are tensing the wind is
blowing on their faces did you notice
that was a bit different right in your
brain what was going on the part of your
brain that would make you run in reality
got activated and the part of your brain
that will make you feel the wind on your
skin thought
activity to your brain can’t tell the
difference between a story hearing a
story and actually leaving an experience
it’s crazy it’s like virtual reality
they’re creating a virtual world and you
bring can tell the difference between
the real world and the virtual world
what if I told you about three evil boys
that are chasing you in their bikes and
they want to hurt you so you try running
away but you can’t because you’re creepy
you still push as hard as you can and
finally you break free and you’re able
to run what happened there in your brain
did you feel like we’re more engaged if
you feel like you were there that’s
actually what’s happening in your brain
it feels like you were there because
your brain activity is the same as the
brain activity was the main character
and in fact it was the same brain
activity for all of us you me by telling
you a story
I was kind of able to telepathically
communicate what’s going on in my brain
so it’s like empathy pure empathy and
all of these brain activity in your
brain is making stories memorable it’s
drilling them in your brain so what is
the story from a neuroscience
perspective it’s an em-dash a machine
it’s a device that enables you to get
into somebody else’s brain to experience
their experiences think their thoughts
and feel their feelings it’s pretty cool
right it’s very cool right so V these
warring stories are powerful and we need
to know how to cross how to use that to
craft good stories right and if you ask
Aristotle 2,000 years ago he would tell
you about the three acts of a story a
beginning middle and end but I never
found that really super insightful we
need a bit more detail to be able to
craft stories so this is a recipe that
you could use but I’m not gonna tell you
about it I’m gonna show you two things
before that there’s gonna be a few
spoilers about the classics if you
haven’t watched them you should feel bad
and this is your punishment right here
number two is going to go pretty fast
okay so grab your armchairs ready all
right let’s go
we start in the ordinary world is the
world of the main character it’s a
normal world but there’s something weird
about it something that doesn’t feel
quite right until suddenly the inciting
incident happens
it’s an event around the beginning of
the story that changes the world of the
main character and he doesn’t know how
to handle that information you’re a
wizard Harry that’s when the mentor
arrives he’s going to push the main
character to face the inciting incident
stop escaping and drag him out of the
ordinary world to cross the threshold
into the extraordinary world the magical
world a new world completely different
from the ordinary world that he knew and
there he will meet new allies new
enemies anyway he will start facing new
tests and challenges and he’ll suddenly
boom the midpoint happens it’s an event
around the middle of story that changes
the story completely because it changes
how the main character sees the world he
realizes he was wrong but he doesn’t
know how to cope with that new
information so he’s weak he’s thinking
about it and the enemies are taking
advantage of this weakness to close in
they are threatening him they’re
surrounding him and that’s when they
strike it’s the crisis it’s the lowest
point of a story it’s the moment of
death of loss the main character is on
his knees and he realizes he needs to
change something it’s the return he’s
coming back energized and he’s going to
face the enemy one last time but now
he’s changed so he’s able to raise to
new heights and now he wins now we see
the aftermath he goes back to the
ordinary world where he came from but
he’s changed thanks to that he won and
thanks to that he gets it
he’s reward so this is the structure of
stories alright we’re done now it feels
quite in intuitively right right not at
all
you ask another storyteller and he’s
gonna tell you forget about this recipe
this is the one you should follow the
other one that has all these things
wrong and then you ask another
storyteller is going to tell you with
what stories don’t even have three hours
they have five or six or eight or 22 or
31 in fact there are hundreds and
hundreds of story recipes out there and
none of them agrees that debate might be
cool if you’re writing a book or a movie
but for us when we just need a recipe an
easy one to follow to press our stores
for everyday use we need something
simpler something a bit more fundamental
what if stories were not linear but
circular circular in that the beginning
and end are connected after going
through the extraordinary world and the
adventure we come back to the ordinary
world and thanks to the contrast we can
highlight the differences you can see
that for example in the Lion King where
we starts with the birth of Simba and
after going through the entire circle of
life we finish with the birth of his
child we can see it in 12 years of slave
where we start with a group of black men
who were enslaved and we finished with a
group of black men who are free was
hidden gravity where we start with a
woman alone in space looking at the
earth and we finished with a woman alone
on earth looking at space we can see it
in Mad Men where in the very first
episode of the very first season Don
Draper is unhappy but he solves a very
difficult advertising campaign and by
the end seven years later in the very
last episode again he’s solving a very
difficult under tyson campaign but this
time he’s happy or in the godfather
where we started with a wedding and we
finished with a funeral so he can see
here this structure at the beginning on
the end and the circle and the same
thing happens just after that in the
problem and solution the inciting
incident and the climax so for example
going back to the godfather at the big
Michael Corleone’s says my family are
crooks but I am not like them
what he means is for me honesty and
civility are more important than my
family by the end of the movie he’s
killed all of his family’s enemies and
he’s lying to his wife’s face therefore
putting family before honesty and
civility so you can see these mirror
image there
the same thing happens in Toy Story for
example where we start with buzz he
lands and he challenges Woody’s
leadership and by the end of the story
they are friends and co-leaders and this
pattern that I’m telling you about
happens throughout the entire story the
first half is about exploring a problem
and the second half is about exploring
the solution that’s why in the story for
example like matrix we can see scene
after scene after scene from the first
half is mirrored in the second half it’s
crazy is like they took the first half
of the movie and then every scene they
revisited in the second half mirroring
them so you can see now this structure
of story is right the first half is
mirroring the second half there’s this
symmetry here and whenever you have two
halves they need to connect at some
point and that is the midpoint the
midpoint is the key event of a story
because it brings the insight to solve
the problem in the Godfather
it’s the first time Michael Corleone he
kills therefore putting family before
civility and he loves it in the Lion
King it’s when Mufasa of The Lion King
dies and his son realizes he cannot be a
brat anymore he will have to eventually
grow up and become The Lion King in the
Toy Story is when Buzz and Woody are
kidnapped and they realized if they
don’t stop bickering they will die in
the force awakens is when Ray touches
the lightsaber and she realizes she
might be a Jedi – so this is the
structure of stories and you can see
that it’s like a ring right in ring
structure and this structure happens
everywhere not just the movies I just
told you about you can see it in Hamlet
in magnet in fact in most of
Shakespeare’s works you can see it’s
even further down Beowulf the first epic
in English language has a ring structure
further down
what about Buddha’s life and then you
can go also not just for stories but
sagas for example every Star Wars
trilogy is a ring and all six movies are
ring to the first six movies in Harry
Potter every book is a ring all seven
together are a ring and you can also see
that at the micro-level
for a good story every act every scene
is a ring why is this structure
everywhere what we can why can we find
it really everywhere is there something
fundamental about it well it’s the
structure of problem solving you just
take the problem you explore the problem
you bring the insight to solve the
problem you explore the insight and you
solve it stories are problem-solving so
now I’m telling you that problems are
like stories are problem solving and I
told you five minutes ago that there are
empathy machines right so how do you put
these two things together stories are a
way to get into somebody else’s brain to
see how they solve problems or put it in
another way stories are away to learn
see hundreds of thousands of years ago
almost same kids were not the strongest
they were not the fastest but we’re the
best at solving problems those who loved
stories the most could solve more
problems that could survive more they
could have more children and spread
their genes and that is how we have
evolved to love stories because they
teach us see that hunter he would have
never shared those bullet boats right it
would have said when I was your age I
was hungry one day so I went to the
river I went to the forest to hunt and
as I got close to the river I saw a lion
and the lion saw me
so I started running away but it was
faster than me so I jumped up a tree and
I saved myself and what would the young
things say oh wow I should not go close
to the river there’s predators there
I should not try to outrun a lion and if
I’m in danger I should climb up a tree
the very same lessons that they would
never remember before are now drilled in
their minds you want to use this power
of stories you listen to me and you
listen to me well are you tired of
trying to teach people stuff but they
don’t remember anything stop shoving
your fat and start wrapping them in
stories IRA tired of trying to convince
people of stuff but they don’t attend to
reasons
stop ramming your reasons down their
throats and start using stories but
don’t just use one story once use
stories at home use stories at school
use stories everywhere at work every day
you tedsters have the unique
intellectual curiosity to seek the truth
master storytelling and you will spread
it thank you
[Applause]
the fire the younglings gather around
him and sit down in silence they’re
easier to hear from the most famous
hunter of the tribe he wants to impart
his knowledge he clears his throat and
begins there is a 25% probability of
finding predators near the river big
felines run 50% faster than humans trees
double the lifespan of helpless hunters
poor younglings do you think they’re
gonna remember anything have you been in
a situation like that where you were
bored to death in a presentation and
what about that poor hunter
he spent a lifetime honing his skills as
a hunter and way too many hours on that
power point and yet his experience is
going to die with him because he
couldn’t communicate it if you’ve ever
been in a situation like that where you
try to teach something to somebody but
you you can’t get him to remember
anything say I if you’ve ever tried to
convince somebody of something with
arguments with reason but they don’t
reason they don’t listen to arguments
say I this has happened to all of us
being right is not enough we need to be
able to communicate in it for that facts
and reason just don’t make it that’s why
the most famous dead speakers in the
world only spend 25% of their talks
telling facts and 65% telling stories
and their write stories are two to ten
times more memorable than facts let me
repeat that because I just give you a
fact so it’s not very memorable
stories are two to ten times more
memorable in facts alone and that’s why
you’re the most influential books in
history our series of stories and
they’ve spawned the biggest religions in
the world stories are powerful so why
don’t we use them more in our everyday
life to communicate we should be using
them all the time but in fact we use
facts we use reason and I think there’s
two reasons for that number one we’re
not really sure why stories captivate so
much
I mean we’re rational animals we use the
facts every day can’t we just keep using
that and the second one is we don’t
really sure how to craft stories easily
and I ask myself these two questions all
of my life my father is a filmmaker and
we talked about stories at school at
home all my life I studied some script
writing in grad school and even wrote a
book about stories and story structure
and that learned T taught me how to
cross stories but not why stories
captivate and the answer came to me from
my job I have to read a lot of
neuroscience for it and the neuroscience
of stories is crazy so I’m gonna tell
you about it but instead of just telling
you about it we’re gonna do a little
experiment okay as I tell you about the
neuroscience of stories I want you to
analyze what’s going on in your brains
okay all right let’s go if I tell you
bipedal motion what are you thinking
maybe walking okay usually your brains
are trying to decipher the words maybe
put them together it’s a couple of parts
in your brain that are getting activated
it’s different for all of us we’re
trying to decipher the words picture
them and it’s hard if instead I tell you
about a group of women who are running
and they’re pushing with their feet
against the ground as hard as they can
their muscles are tensing the wind is
blowing on their faces did you notice
that was a bit different right in your
brain what was going on the part of your
brain that would make you run in reality
got activated and the part of your brain
that will make you feel the wind on your
skin thought
activity to your brain can’t tell the
difference between a story hearing a
story and actually leaving an experience
it’s crazy it’s like virtual reality
they’re creating a virtual world and you
bring can tell the difference between
the real world and the virtual world
what if I told you about three evil boys
that are chasing you in their bikes and
they want to hurt you so you try running
away but you can’t because you’re creepy
you still push as hard as you can and
finally you break free and you’re able
to run what happened there in your brain
did you feel like we’re more engaged if
you feel like you were there that’s
actually what’s happening in your brain
it feels like you were there because
your brain activity is the same as the
brain activity was the main character
and in fact it was the same brain
activity for all of us you me by telling
you a story
I was kind of able to telepathically
communicate what’s going on in my brain
so it’s like empathy pure empathy and
all of these brain activity in your
brain is making stories memorable it’s
drilling them in your brain so what is
the story from a neuroscience
perspective it’s an em-dash a machine
it’s a device that enables you to get
into somebody else’s brain to experience
their experiences think their thoughts
and feel their feelings it’s pretty cool
right it’s very cool right so V these
warring stories are powerful and we need
to know how to cross how to use that to
craft good stories right and if you ask
Aristotle 2,000 years ago he would tell
you about the three acts of a story a
beginning middle and end but I never
found that really super insightful we
need a bit more detail to be able to
craft stories so this is a recipe that
you could use but I’m not gonna tell you
about it I’m gonna show you two things
before that there’s gonna be a few
spoilers about the classics if you
haven’t watched them you should feel bad
and this is your punishment right here
number two is going to go pretty fast
okay so grab your armchairs ready all
right let’s go
we start in the ordinary world is the
world of the main character it’s a
normal world but there’s something weird
about it something that doesn’t feel
quite right until suddenly the inciting
incident happens
it’s an event around the beginning of
the story that changes the world of the
main character and he doesn’t know how
to handle that information you’re a
wizard Harry that’s when the mentor
arrives he’s going to push the main
character to face the inciting incident
stop escaping and drag him out of the
ordinary world to cross the threshold
into the extraordinary world the magical
world a new world completely different
from the ordinary world that he knew and
there he will meet new allies new
enemies anyway he will start facing new
tests and challenges and he’ll suddenly
boom the midpoint happens it’s an event
around the middle of story that changes
the story completely because it changes
how the main character sees the world he
realizes he was wrong but he doesn’t
know how to cope with that new
information so he’s weak he’s thinking
about it and the enemies are taking
advantage of this weakness to close in
they are threatening him they’re
surrounding him and that’s when they
strike it’s the crisis it’s the lowest
point of a story it’s the moment of
death of loss the main character is on
his knees and he realizes he needs to
change something it’s the return he’s
coming back energized and he’s going to
face the enemy one last time but now
he’s changed so he’s able to raise to
new heights and now he wins now we see
the aftermath he goes back to the
ordinary world where he came from but
he’s changed thanks to that he won and
thanks to that he gets it
he’s reward so this is the structure of
stories alright we’re done now it feels
quite in intuitively right right not at
all
you ask another storyteller and he’s
gonna tell you forget about this recipe
this is the one you should follow the
other one that has all these things
wrong and then you ask another
storyteller is going to tell you with
what stories don’t even have three hours
they have five or six or eight or 22 or
31 in fact there are hundreds and
hundreds of story recipes out there and
none of them agrees that debate might be
cool if you’re writing a book or a movie
but for us when we just need a recipe an
easy one to follow to press our stores
for everyday use we need something
simpler something a bit more fundamental
what if stories were not linear but
circular circular in that the beginning
and end are connected after going
through the extraordinary world and the
adventure we come back to the ordinary
world and thanks to the contrast we can
highlight the differences you can see
that for example in the Lion King where
we starts with the birth of Simba and
after going through the entire circle of
life we finish with the birth of his
child we can see it in 12 years of slave
where we start with a group of black men
who were enslaved and we finished with a
group of black men who are free was
hidden gravity where we start with a
woman alone in space looking at the
earth and we finished with a woman alone
on earth looking at space we can see it
in Mad Men where in the very first
episode of the very first season Don
Draper is unhappy but he solves a very
difficult advertising campaign and by
the end seven years later in the very
last episode again he’s solving a very
difficult under tyson campaign but this
time he’s happy or in the godfather
where we started with a wedding and we
finished with a funeral so he can see
here this structure at the beginning on
the end and the circle and the same
thing happens just after that in the
problem and solution the inciting
incident and the climax so for example
going back to the godfather at the big
Michael Corleone’s says my family are
crooks but I am not like them
what he means is for me honesty and
civility are more important than my
family by the end of the movie he’s
killed all of his family’s enemies and
he’s lying to his wife’s face therefore
putting family before honesty and
civility so you can see these mirror
image there
the same thing happens in Toy Story for
example where we start with buzz he
lands and he challenges Woody’s
leadership and by the end of the story
they are friends and co-leaders and this
pattern that I’m telling you about
happens throughout the entire story the
first half is about exploring a problem
and the second half is about exploring
the solution that’s why in the story for
example like matrix we can see scene
after scene after scene from the first
half is mirrored in the second half it’s
crazy is like they took the first half
of the movie and then every scene they
revisited in the second half mirroring
them so you can see now this structure
of story is right the first half is
mirroring the second half there’s this
symmetry here and whenever you have two
halves they need to connect at some
point and that is the midpoint the
midpoint is the key event of a story
because it brings the insight to solve
the problem in the Godfather
it’s the first time Michael Corleone he
kills therefore putting family before
civility and he loves it in the Lion
King it’s when Mufasa of The Lion King
dies and his son realizes he cannot be a
brat anymore he will have to eventually
grow up and become The Lion King in the
Toy Story is when Buzz and Woody are
kidnapped and they realized if they
don’t stop bickering they will die in
the force awakens is when Ray touches
the lightsaber and she realizes she
might be a Jedi – so this is the
structure of stories and you can see
that it’s like a ring right in ring
structure and this structure happens
everywhere not just the movies I just
told you about you can see it in Hamlet
in magnet in fact in most of
Shakespeare’s works you can see it’s
even further down Beowulf the first epic
in English language has a ring structure
further down
what about Buddha’s life and then you
can go also not just for stories but
sagas for example every Star Wars
trilogy is a ring and all six movies are
ring to the first six movies in Harry
Potter every book is a ring all seven
together are a ring and you can also see
that at the micro-level
for a good story every act every scene
is a ring why is this structure
everywhere what we can why can we find
it really everywhere is there something
fundamental about it well it’s the
structure of problem solving you just
take the problem you explore the problem
you bring the insight to solve the
problem you explore the insight and you
solve it stories are problem-solving so
now I’m telling you that problems are
like stories are problem solving and I
told you five minutes ago that there are
empathy machines right so how do you put
these two things together stories are a
way to get into somebody else’s brain to
see how they solve problems or put it in
another way stories are away to learn
see hundreds of thousands of years ago
almost same kids were not the strongest
they were not the fastest but we’re the
best at solving problems those who loved
stories the most could solve more
problems that could survive more they
could have more children and spread
their genes and that is how we have
evolved to love stories because they
teach us see that hunter he would have
never shared those bullet boats right it
would have said when I was your age I
was hungry one day so I went to the
river I went to the forest to hunt and
as I got close to the river I saw a lion
and the lion saw me
so I started running away but it was
faster than me so I jumped up a tree and
I saved myself and what would the young
things say oh wow I should not go close
to the river there’s predators there
I should not try to outrun a lion and if
I’m in danger I should climb up a tree
the very same lessons that they would
never remember before are now drilled in
their minds you want to use this power
of stories you listen to me and you
listen to me well are you tired of
trying to teach people stuff but they
don’t remember anything stop shoving
your fat and start wrapping them in
stories IRA tired of trying to convince
people of stuff but they don’t attend to
reasons
stop ramming your reasons down their
throats and start using stories but
don’t just use one story once use
stories at home use stories at school
use stories everywhere at work every day
you tedsters have the unique
intellectual curiosity to seek the truth
master storytelling and you will spread
it thank you
[Applause]
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