The Power of Stories

"Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories."
- Roger C. Schank, cognitive scientist

"The story - from Rumplestiltskin to War and Peace - is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories."
- Ursula K Le Guin, author

"Stories - that's how people make sense of what's happening to them when they get sick. They tell stories about themselves. Our ability as doctors to treat and heal is bound up in our ability to accuately perceive a patient's story. If you can't do that, you're working with one hand tied behind your back."
- Dr Howard Brody, family practice physician

"Storytelling doesn't replace analyticial thinking, it supplements it by enabling us to imagine new perspectives and new worlds... Abstract analysis is easier to understand when seen through the lens of a well-chosen story."
- Steve Denning

The above four quotes come from the book, A Whole New Mind - Moving from the information age to the conceptual age by Daniel H. Pink