The story - part 1

[Barrett Dorko]

Clay Shirky says in Here Comes Everybody:

We suffer not from “information overload” but from filtering failure. The minute people are exposed to reality they freak out.

Well, who could blame them? I have the sense that this “freaking out” is directly related to our tendency to tell stories (known as an evolutionary imperative), confabulate and simply lie often enough to confuse ourselves, even to the point we are certain, that our story might be true.

My explanations to patients about the ectodermal rational behind my thinking and management usually draw them into my circle of understanding. The same explanation offered my colleagues drives them away.

My failure has at it root an inability to lie about my therapeutic practice – to make up a story my coworkers find compelling. Instead, I want to explain things. I want to make a case.

Unfortunately, only story will penetrate.

More about all this tomorrow.