Narrative-Driven Research and Data (AKA Why Wes Prefers Qualitative Information to Quantitative Data)
It's In Our DNA "Once upon a time..." "In the beginning..." "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Now be honest: Did one or more of the above set your mind on a narrative adventure? Could you see the fairy tale unfold before you, complete with dragons and castles? Were you transported to the beginning of the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth? Did you hear the opening fanfare as the title crawl invited you into the middle of an epic where a teenaged, back-country farm boy would save the entire universe from the grip of an evil, armor-plated warlock? There is a reason why this happens. We are hardwired to engage with stories. From our earliest moments to our dying breaths, humans are storytellers and story experiencers. Christopher Booker writes, "We spend a phenomenal amount of our lives following stories: telling them; listening to them; reading them; watching them being acted out on the television screen or in films...
