From Coffee Pots To Constellations: Chaotic Life Lessons On Linear Storytelling

Of course a viral YouTube video creator is going to drop a bomb like this on me while I’m trying to wash a coffee pot in the morning that I forgot to wash the night before.

The soapy pot immediately went down into the sink so I could transcribe this. Before the caffeine even. Crazy, right?!:

Knowledge is one thing, but storytelling is the curation of chaotic information about the world into a very firm, linear, presentation.

You go through life picking up dots. The dots don’t make sense while you’re picking them up, you just are following your curiosity. But then, when you look back, you spot all these connections in between the dots you are holding.

And, the best storytellers take it ONE STEP FURTHER.

The dots, in a big ol’ pile, are information. Any point of connection you can spot between them is wisdom. But, to make that wisdom sharable, we have to convert it into a story.

The chaotic information we’ve picked up, stacked into a linear order like it was destiny, is a magic trick.

It’s not reality. It is very much an after-the-fact reconstruction. But seeing it that way, is magical. It’s moving from a starry sky to having a star map. It’s moving from random pin-pricks of light to knowing the names of constellations and their mythology (what’s up Orion, nice seeing you in my backyard sky lately).

If you do it well, like Johnny Harris, you can go viral too. If you never heard of him, maybe you’re one of the 13 million people who watched his explanation on why McDonald’s ice cream machines are always broken. Or, where I discovered him, this explanation of why flat earthers think what they think. See the linearity of it. So good.

I’m currently working on a few new ideas and ways I can restructure everything I release with insights like Johnny’s. My new take on the weekly recap is an example. I’m also playing with some ideas on YouTube you’ll see soon too, where I’m doing condensed episodes of the otherwise live 2-person barstool networking conversations I regularly record. His advice couldn’t have hit me at a better time.

Ok, the best time his advice could hit me, is probably post-morning caffeine but. This is a close second. Because how often do the best ideas arrive in otherwise mundane moments? It’s our job to notice them. It’s our job to capture them. Should we choose to accept it, and, I do, I’m guessing if you’re reading this, you do too.

ps. like the way my s***show morning feels so purposeful now? Is this therapy? Don’t answer that.

I can’t recommend this Johnny Harris appearance on David Perell’s YouTube/podcast enough: