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Tim Harford: evaluation

12 Feb 2020 Conversations with Tyler Tim Harford on Persuasion and Popular Economics

“I think people underrate stories, even when the story is used to convey a complex piece of information.”

— Tim Harford

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Speaker
Tim Harford
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
evaluation
Recorded
12 Feb 2020
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

Transcript context

…What is the thing you know about writing that maybe the rest of us do not? I think people underrate stories, even when the story is used to convey a complex piece of information. Even if I’m trying to explain the ideas of Danny Kahneman or some economic idea or some statistical or mathematical idea, I’m always looking for a little story to tell. Michael Lewis, by the way, understands this far better than I will ever understand it. He’s the master, but many people I think, don’t fully understand. And often, when people talk about stories, what they actually mean is examples or anecdotes. But a proper story has a protagonist, and it has a dramatic flow, and there are twists, and there are highs, and there are lows, even if it’s a quite a brief story. It’s more than just, “Oh, let me give you an example of somebody who did this.” And what’s your most unusual work habit?…

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