How to Really Change Someone's Mind, Nick Cave on Love Island, Where Good Ideas Come From

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Illustration of British rapper Little Simz on a black background with a yellow circle. Simz is standing with her eyes closed, head tilted back, and her clothes have white lettering that reads "fear no man, fear no man, fear no evil, bad energy go away, leave me alone today".

Illustration by Sumuyya Khader – work with Sumuyya

Hi All,
We'd really appreciate a little bit of help from you all this week.

As you may know, we're currently researching how people find, use, and share stories in this hybrid working landscape. We're doing this using roundtables, interviews and a survey. We'd love to hear about your media habits. Please fill out our survey. Answering the questions really made me reflect on how my own use of media has changed in a variety of ways since March 2020.

Also, if you work with young people or your audience is below the age of twenty-four we'd love to interview you. Please get in touch.

OK. The weekend has officially landed. Enjoy today's stories and have a wonderful weekend.
Hugh

The Short Story

Tone Knob: How a Brand Uses Bullet Point Lists to Shape its Tone of Voice
(5 min read)

I Was Wrong About...
(multiple reads)

Recent Studies Reveal the Truth About Where Good Ideas Come From
(7 min read)

What If the Ending Dorothy Parker Wrote for A Star Is Born Wasn't Rejected
(30 min listen)

Tim Harford: How to Really Change Someone's Mind
(4 min read)

Nick Cave on Who He Wants to Win Love Island. Seriously!
(3 min read)

How Curiosity Takes Marketing Further Than Knowledge
(34 min watch)

Smart and Simple Visualisations of Concepts
(2 min read)

"Have the courage to speak in grade-school language"
(Tweet)

How to Spot the Warning Signs of a Toxic Client Relationship
(6 min read)

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and content company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas.

Here's 3 reasons to get in touch.

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial.

2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.

3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.

We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch.

The Full Story

Tone Knob: How a Brand Uses Bullet Point Lists to Shape its Tone of Voice
For those unfamiliar, Tone Knob is a newsletter about sharing and analysing great tone of voice. This week it looks at how Palace, a skateboarding brand, uses humour and bullet point lists in a simple but brilliant way: "The secret sauce here is obviously the bullet point list format. It’s the structure their writer(s) can riff off, it makes even the most innocuous descriptions 10x funnier. Part of its glory is that bullet points are so seemingly unpromising. They’re dull and corporate. They’re the unthinking default. What uninspiring thing is lying around in plain sight that could maybe be the springboard into something unexpected?"
(5 min read)

I Was Wrong About...
I love this format and really like how the New York Times has visualised it. Eight Times Opinion columnists revisit their incorrect predictions and bad advice — and reflect on why they changed their minds. Including Zeynep Tufekci on why she was wrong about protests, David Brooks on why he was wrong about capitalism, and Farhad Manjoo on why he was wrong about Facebook.
(Multiple reads)

Recent Studies Reveal the Truth About Where Good Ideas Come From
One of my favorite books on innovation is Steven Johnson's superb Where Good Ideas Come. Amongst many things, Steven talks about a hunch that going for a walk puts the mind in an open and associative state which is perfect for generating ideas. Since writing the book a number of scientific studies have offered empirical proof that this is the case.
(7 min read)

What If the Ending Dorothy Parker Wrote for A Star is Born Wasn't Rejected
The new series of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History looks at experiments. In this episode, he weaves a what-if thought experiment around a legendary Hollywood mogul, a famous author, a fatal drunk-driving accident, and a brilliant bit of screenwriting, left on the cutting room floor.
(30 min listen)

Tim Harford: How to Really Change Someone's Mind
Debating is a wonderful idea but it rarely works. You win a debating contest in much the same way that you win a figure-skating competition: by convincing the judges that you have produced a superlative performance. Tim Harford looks at three different tactics used in debates and concludes that the real way to change someone's mind has little to do with performance or logic.
(4 min read)

Nick Cave on Who He Wants to Win Love Island. Seriously!
In his latest Red Hand Files, Nick tells us why he wants Luca to win Love Island whilst neatly demonstrating the best approach for dealing with people who are grieving.
(3 min read)

How Curiosity Takes Marketing Further Than Knowledge
I really enjoy Neil Perkin's Google Firestarters interviews. He asks a range of guests the same five questions - which is a nice format. The questions are; what was your biggest career learning, what was your biggest career mistake, what is your key insight around how your industry is changing, what is your prediction for the future of your industry and what question do you wish I'd asked. In this interview, the former CEO of TBWA, Sara Tate, talks about breaking out of self-imposed constraints, and the value of a beginner's mind in generating new possibilities
(34 min watch)

Smart and Simple Visualisations of Concepts
We do a lot of thinking (and talking) about metaphors. They are incredibly useful tools for telling complex stories. These visualisations are simple and smart and will come in handy for some of the animation work we do.
(2 min read)

"Have the courage to speak in grade-school language"
Lessons in brevity from Abraham Lincoln, MLK, JFK, and Steve Jobs.
(Tweet)

How to Spot the Warning Signs of a Toxic Client Relationship
It's Nice That has put together a guide to client red flags that will help you avoid creative, financial and spiritual ruin.
(6 min read)

We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend you can subscribe here and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading and see you all next week,

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the team at Storythings

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