Every story is rich with compressed data.
For example, aphorisms are Zip files, they need mental software to unzip. My friend Peter shared an excellent one with me: "Buy in hope. Trust in Fear." Six words that tell a new story when in this composition.
Find the connection and you get to a truth.
The art and craft of storytelling by whatever means, in my case preferably visually, is a constant draw. I remember the tales in Boccaccio's Decameron#, themselves shared against the backdrop of a larger story.
A long time fan of Pixar (Wall-E and Ratatuille are tied in first position), I came across a lovely post by Jon Negroni# putting forth what he calls the Pixar theory: that every Pixar movie is connected; then sets forth to detail how and why, with the contribution of readers. 6,155 comments later, we have a fairly detailed narrative.
Stories are the way our brains deal with a lot of information, and an attempt to explain what is going on, possibly to make sense of it. "The point of this theory," says Negroni, "is to have fun and exercise your imagination while simultaneously finding interesting connections between these fantastic movies."
I'm in.
Negroni created a gigantic infographic to pull the information onto one timeline.
Bob Sutton posted an early review# of Creativity, Inc. the upcoming book by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios.
It's on my list of books to get next.
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effects on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.