A Bad Ending Ruins a Good Story
Ending your own stories well has untold power
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Humans love a good story, after all we are the story-telling animal.
The idea of a narrative is so powerful, in fact, it’s a main reason our race of humans (homo-sapiens) conquered the planet, beating out other human species like neanderthals or homo-erectus.
Eminent historian Yuval Noah Harari, author of the brilliant Sapiens, states that when humans lived in tribes we couldn’t grow to much more than 150 members per tribe. This was mainly because of ‘gossip’ (I know — gossip — of all things).
150 members is about the number of people a single human can remember personal details about and talk to other members about within their tribe. Any more than 150 and the group simply becomes too big for all the members to know every other member on a personal level.
This is where stories came in. Humans have the capacity to think, imagine and believe in things they can’t see. This ability laid the foundation for humans to create intangible ideas, and more importantly, stories. These stories could be shared from mind-to-mind, and could spread to the minds of more than 150 people.
