Tell a proper story

Storytelling is very much back in the conversation in the tech industry. Maybe because we humans need to distinguish ourselves from our super-productive, scary smart LLMs.

I’m all for it. Stories are SO powerful.

To be clear, though, when I say “story” I mean something specific. I mean the Hero’s Journey story pattern in Joseph Campbell’s seminal The Hero with a Thousand Faces or Pixar’s story structure:

Once upon a time . . . (introduce the world and the characters)

Every day. . . (daily life is smooth and lovely)

One day . . . (change happens!)

Because of that . . . (more change happens! Problem!)

Because of that . . . (Oh dear big problem! And then change!)

Until finally . . . (resolution into something new)

There are two things you absolutely MUST have in a story:

A PROBLEM - if there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing for us to worry about solving.

CHANGE - What insights propel the hero? What hard things does the hero learn to do?

If there is no problem, you don’t set up the desire for a happy ending. If there is no change, you can’t achieve that happy ending.

If there is no problem and no change, you are not telling a story, you are just talking.