Storytelling

This Happened, or It Will

Frank Reader sings for the Trashcan Sinatras, a Scottish band my wife and I have loved for decades. A few years ago he ran one of those fan campaigns: a small pledge, and he’d record himself reading a children’s book aloud. Most people asked him to read for their kids. I asked him to read for my wife.

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My Name Is Inigo Montoya

There may be no better bedtime story in cinema history than The Princess Bride, and it’s worth understanding exactly why. Not the story-within-the-story, though that’s great. The frame: Peter Falk, sitting on the edge of a bed, reading to his sick and skeptical grandson. Watch Falk’s performance the next time it’s on. He’s not performing literature. He’s not being careful or reverent. He’s enjoying himself. He knows the good parts are coming. He lingers where he wants to linger. He skips ahead when the kid needs him to. He has told this story before, and he likes it more every time.

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The Velveteen Rabbit Test

Every product worth building has a test. One question you can put to any decision — a line of prose, a sound, a screen, a word on a button — that tells you honestly whether you’re building the right thing. Most teams never find theirs. They write values instead, which is a different exercise, and a much safer one.

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