"The success of Homo sapiens as a species is built on our inability to tell the difference between a fiction and a reality."

~ Yuval Noah Harari

Cinematic Attention for a High-Def Life

Any perception you can observe directly in real time can be used to train a variety of attention-related skills.

I like to make a game out of turning ordinary activities into opportunities for practice.

There are a number of exercises I use when watching a film — whether it’s one I enjoy, dislike, or have seen before.

See Out, Hear Out, Feel In, Concentration, Clarity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonJanuary 31, 2016film, craft, mindfulness, seeing, hearing, feeling, story, storytellingComment

The Feeling of Being Engaged by a Story

Readers like stories when they feel engaged by them. Whether the story is pleasant, neutral or unpleasant matter doesn’t really matter. Readers simply enjoy the feeling of being engaged by a story.

Daron LarsonNovember 27, 2015story, storytelling, narrative, entertainment, neuroscience, John S. Johnson, Alexis Wichowski, TechCrunch, research, Su BlackwellComment

Refine Your Lens

When I talk to people about finding stories in their life, I'm talking about finding things that are almost in their everyday that they can bring great meaning to and connect to audiences or to people around the lunch table.

~ Matthew Dicks

Practice in LifeDaron LarsonAugust 14, 2015Matthew Dicks, story, storytelling, practice, writing, advice, time, memory, mundane, creativityComment

Everything is Constantly Changing

"When you read it you realize that everything is constantly changing, and that that is, at least often, the key to a great story..."

~ Ben Marcus

Notice FlowDaron LarsonJuly 29, 2015Ben Marcus, literature, Ovid, change, impermanence, transformation, story, storytelling, narrative, writers, mythologyComment

Clusters Based on Similarity

Stories cannot demolish frontiers, but they can punch holes in our mental walls. And through those holes, we can get a glimpse of the other, and sometimes even like what we see."

~ Elif Shafak

Many Stories Matter

"Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity." ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Daron LarsonSeptember 6, 2014Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TED, story, narrative, storytelling, stereotyping, truth, complexity, society, self/other, historyComment

The Story

Daron LarsonJune 5, 2014Philip Seymour Hoffman, actors, ego, happiness, story, storytelling, suffering, suicideComment

Stories are Powerful

Daron LarsonApril 20, 2014Paul Zak, connection, empathy, humanity, neuroscience, story, storytellingComment

Welded Together So Tightly in Your Mind

Daron LarsonApril 12, 2014Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, hearing, language, memory, mind, music, storytellingComment

Telling Stories

Daron LarsonFebruary 16, 2014Emma Coats, Pixar, storytellingComment

For No Good Reason

"One of the most difficult things to say to another person is, I hope that you will love me for no good reason. But it is what we all want and rarely dare to say to one another – to our children, to our parents and mates, to our friends, and to strangers. Especially to strangers, who have neither good nor bad reasons to love us."

~ Russell Banks, from The Angel on the Roof