Being a Storyteller

In a recent interview for McKinsey Quartely Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman makes a brilliant point: "Overconfidence is a powerful source of illusions, primarily determined by the quality and coherence of the story that you can construct, not by its validity." We've heard it a million times: The data doesn't lie. But it really matters who is constructing the data and why. Wall Street created well-constructed illusions with its string of alphabet soup derivatives. Now, I better understand what my mother meant when after being caught in a lie she would say, "don't tell stories." It's just that the stories Wall Street tell are detrimental to us and other countries all around the world.

Being Happy

Daniel Kahneman, psychologist and Nobel Prize laureate for his groundbreaking work in behavioral economics, gave a thoughtful talk at TED this year. He dealt with the paradox between the experience and memory selves and how it applies to happiness. Kahneman asserts that time is the crucial element that distinguishes the experience and memory selves. He concludes that there is no change in time in the story; the story itself as actually experienced doesn't change. But what about our memory of it? Memory seems to evolve in time even though there is no actual change in the story itself. Our memory of the story often changes. Kahneman asserts that "we choose between memories of the experience." But I wonder about our recreating or reinventing the experience. Does this become memory?


What we think about "the happiness of the experiencing self and the satisfaction of the memory self" are very different, Khaneman posits. There is nothing new here really. I think this relates to our ability to invent stories, even memorable ones, those re-created by memory from the story. The mind seems to have a distinct ability to create stories, to develop pictures. But what is interesting is how these distinct selves relate to our happiness or sense of it. Kahnenman asserts that "happiness is not a substitute for well-being. They are two different notions." He gives stats that unequivocally indicate that money plays a role in how we remember happiness but not how we experience it. Do listen to the 20-minute video. You might find in interesting, even applicable in how we think about happiness.

What are your thoughts?