This is a pet peeve that Eric Pachman gets full credit for swirling to the top of my consciousness.

When it comes to “facts” - we all have access to them.

Get the number from the data set, get the price from the security, get the language of the new policy - and what it is is actually what it is.

What’s different, and where people get all hung up on it, is how people talk about the facts.

And the part that bothers me is when people think somebody has the facts wrong when actually the story is just being told differently than the one they wanted to hear.

Yes, the story can be misleading, wrong, untruthful, or any other variation of factual abuse you can come up with. Which means,

There are times when it’s appropriate to shoot the messenger.

Not calling for violence here, that’s a metaphor, but it’s a serious reminder.

Question who is saying what and why. Ask “Why am I reading this now” (h/t Ben Hunt). Call BS on the storyteller, pick up their story and then return to the facts.

We all have facts. We all have stories. Just don’t confuse one for the other.

Don’t talk about facts and forget the story matters.

Don’t listen about facts and forget they’re being framed in a story.

It makes navigating the world much, much clearer.

Ps. Here’s a great example of Eric breaking facts and stories apart with me on Excess Returns: