The influence of a good story drives you crazy if you assume the world is swayed by facts and objectivity—if you assume the best idea or the largest numbers or the correct answer wins. There’s a devoted group of Harari critics obsessed with showing how unoriginal his work is; Musk is viewed with the same mix of confusion and contempt. In a perfect world, the importance of information wouldn’t rely on its author’s eloquence. But we live in a world where people are bored, impatient, emotional, and need complicated things distilled into easy-to-grasp scenes.
Influence of good stories.
