Happy Friday! We’ve scoured the web for thought-provoking articles and essays for you to enjoy over the weekend.
In the Scientific American, the University of Missouri’s Director of the Master of Public Health program Lise Saffran writes on the crucial role of storytelling in searching for truth. When confronted with facts, we often filter out evidence that contradicts our cultural predispositions. But when we hear a subjective story and feel a personal and authentic connection with someone, we’re more willing to override our bias:
“Years ago at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Frank Conroy used to tell his students that the reason we love stories is that we long to be accompanied. When readers are told that the perspective of the person telling the story doesn’t matter because the story consists of objective facts, they increasingly suspect they are being lied to. This suspicion is often disarmed when they believe they are being spoken to by a real human being. My friend’s sister, for example, discounts NPR news in its entirety but is addicted to This American Life.”
Elsewhere on the Internet:
The Atlantic profiles Detroit’s Henry Ford College and other technical schools that are rethinking curriculum to focus on communication and critical thinking skills in the age of automation.
Jacob Morgan at the Harvard Business Review writes on employee engagement and the importance of “creating a place where people want, not just need, to work each day.”
K.E. Semmel on how a shared love of reading connected him to his father, a truck driver for Wegmans, in a lovely essay for Literary Hub.
“Radical candor” and willingness to give and accept honest, respectful feedback make for a better leader according to Ron Carucci in Forbes.
Molly Reynolds offers a defense of arts education and its proven track record for improving entrepreneurial innovation and creativity in business.
Book readers live 23 months longer than their non-reading counterparts, according to new science written about in Electric Literature.
Image: Indian Kathakar Storyteller from page 64 “Indian myth and legend,” 1913, Internet Book Archive Images @ Flickr Commons [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons
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