23-24 Feb | Balance of First Three Weeks
2023-02-2401-02 Mar | Could Life Planning be a Game?
2023-03-02As I was trying to explore visual interfaces to share concepts on Life Planning, I came across the question: “I am trying to communicate a theory or a story?” I started this Sabbatic with an Engineer-like mentality of finding a solution to a problem but the more I talk and explore, the more it feels that Life Planning Challenges are better accepted and approached by others as a journey or conversation, hence closer to a story.
I dedicated then a couple of conversations and hours of exploration during these days and confirmed that the matter of story versus theory is pivotal in many dimensions, including our vision of ourselves and our life. I share at the end of the post valuable references I found on this topic. This exploration was important not only to the initial goal of how to share concepts but also supported my decision as to where to focus the next 4 weeks as I explain in the next posts.
Story vs Theory
A Story engages and challenges us but does not explains. A Theory explains but lacks the emotional link. This very superficial thought was the start of my exploration. Is the distinction real? Has it been covered by others? Are the two sides compatible? What mix of both is applicable to Life Planning and Alignment?
The first finding was a Blog called Melting Asphalt by Kevin Smiller which focus on Sytems Thinking and Human Behaviour and has old (2012) but to-the-point posts on this topic, especially the one on stories-and-theories. Risking simplifying a great post (I strongly advise you to read it), I made a table to sum up the key differences.
| Angle | Stories | Theories |
| Response | Empathy | Reasoning |
| Scope | Human Condition | Entire System |
| Details | Omit or Exploit | Explain |
| Use to us | Experience other Realities | Understand and Predict |
| Technique | Legibility | Scientific |
My favorite excerpts from that Post on Stories:
(…) A great story will take you inside someone else’s head in a way no other experience can, inciting feelings you didn’t realize other people felt (maybe not even yourself). (..) Stories show us what it’s like to be male and what it’s like to be female — what it’s like to be rich and what it’s like to be poor — what it’s like to be black and white, yellow and red, and all the shades of brown.
(..) stories provide (that we can’t get from the real world) enhanced (…) Theories look at systems as a whole, rather than (or in addition to) tracing the arc of individuals or components within a system. (…) Theories provide truly mind-altering shifts in perspective. (…) We can theorize about the tiniest particles in the universe, billions of times smaller than anything visible to the naked eye.
(..) We spoke about the tension between legibility and realism in stories. Theories suffer no such tension — they are legible (for the most part) by construction. Theories do admit to greater or lesser realism — they can be false (inaccurate representations of the world), or oversimplified (to the point of being irrelevant or even dangerous). But weak theories are exposed, sooner or later, when they make bad predictions.. The world is messy and hard to decipher. Stories simplify reality, presenting it in a way that’s easier to understand. (…) Legibility and realism aren’t diametrically opposed, but they aren’t complementary either. The more a story tries to paint in terms of black and white (good and evil), the less realistic it will be.
(…) All stories omit details, but the devil lies in which details are omitted.
and on Theories:
(…) Theories look at systems as a whole, rather than (or in addition to) tracing the arc of individuals or components within a system. (…) Theories provide truly mind-altering shifts in perspective. (…) We can theorize about the tiniest particles in the universe, billions of times smaller than anything visible to the naked eye.
(..) We spoke about the tension between legibility and realism in stories. Theories suffer no such tension — they are legible (for the most part) by construction. Theories do admit to greater or lesser realism — they can be false (inaccurate representations of the world), or oversimplified (to the point of being irrelevant or even dangerous). But weak theories are exposed, sooner or later, when they make bad predictions.
Power and Alerts of Using Stories in Complex Context
Since I am more of a Theory person, I was surprised and engaged in the Story topic and dug deeper, only to find that not everything is great on the Story side of exploration. Since they exert such a strong effect on us and because, as Yuval Noah Harari points, human superpower is storytelling, by understanding how stories work and we can better understand ourselves.
As we saw, one of the engines of Stories is Legibility (being easy to understand and follow). A Big Little Idea Called Legibility is a good article to understand why our brain, our organizations and even our governments need and impose a simplistic description of our systems: it is useful to make decisions and communicate them to others.
One other aspect of Stories is the power they have on us. I saw two great videos of Ted Talks on Stories that illustrate how we can use them in negative ways. One is called The danger of a single story and explores how it is important but hard to have multiple, adaptable stories of others and of ourselves, instead of unidimensional stereotypes. The other video is called Be suspicious of stories and goes over the idea that we are so used, for comfort and efficiency, to thinking in terms of Stories, from our routines to world order, that it stops us from embracing the richnesses of more messy and complex views.
Conclusion: I will Focus on Theory. Stories are Tools.
After this exploration, I will go back to a prevalently theoretical and scientific approach to Life Planning and Alignment. I now understand that being drawn to the question “should I use Stories as the base of my sharing with others?” was natural since I am human and would like others easily to understand me… but it can be a trap in dealing with complex systems thinking. On the other hand, I now acknowledge in more detail the power of stories and will probably incorporate it into the framework… hopefully in controlled way 🙂 Always learning!
Content Used in the Post
Blogs
https://meltingasphalt.com/stories-and-theories/
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/07/26/a-big-little-idea-called-legibility/
Videos
2 Comments
Não tenho a certeza de que a opção enunciada seja a boa opção. As histórias (as narrativas) têm uma outra vantagem para além da legibility. Elas abrem campo para interpretações diversas, convocam à construção de sentido pro parte de cada uma. As teorias fecham o pensamento, focam e provocam o raciocínio “certo ou errado”. Na maior parte das situações este raciocínio é muito pouco útil e não provoca avanços significativos no conhecimento.
Acho que a noção aparentemente negativa do “certo ou errado” que pode fechar o pensamento é resultado não das teorias em si (todas estão erradas, é so uma qeustão de tempo) mas da actual confusão entre ciência e opinão.
A primeira é a formulação bem estruturada, se possível com dados reais, de uma hipótese pronta a ser melhorada e provada errada. A segunda é muitas vezes superficial e na verdade uma narrativa mascarada ciencia com dificuldade de ser melhorada. Além disso a primeira raramente é individual pois constroi sobre outras, enquanto a segunda é quase sempre pessoal.
Mas concordo, porque tenho visto nas conversas com outros fiz essa exploração sobre o poder das historias, que a partilha e boas conversas se devem basear em narrativas.
Acho que o equilibrio será criar boas narrativas que ajudem a entrar na teoria 🙂