Kleon strikes again. I loved these sections in the book. With regards to “Tell Good Stories” though, I really enjoyed his exploration of how your work literally, does not speak for itself. In my theatre class, we are writing play scenes and I have come into contact with this dilemma many times in the semester so far. I write something, expecting it to speak out to people the way that it speaks to me, and it just doesn’t. No one knows how much time and energy I put into that scene, or why I chose to name this character this name. Our work doesn’t speak for itself. People want to hear about the struggle that you went through. They want you to connect them to the artwork in such a way as to make it seem… special.
This chapter in Smarter than you Think was really enlightening for me. I had never thought about society like Thompson had before. The idea of pluralistic ignorance is essentially people underestimating the similarities they share (socially) with the people around them. My favorite example from the book was the scenario with binge drinking on college campuses in the 90’s. This might just be because I’m in college and can therefore identify with this situation the most out of all the examples given, but I thought it was fascinating.
To be honest, I love this book. “Smarter than You Think” addresses key problems and situations in our society that focuses on the move towards a technological future. With regards to writing for a public audience, I think that having that extra pressure encourages me to do better with my work. When we write to just turn into our professor, the pressure to perform well is there, but less. Writing for a public audience is scary, and also adds another aspect to writing: interest.
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