0:06
Isis kills 128 civilians in revenge
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surprise counter-attack on Syrian town
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$22 Bitcoin investments prison region
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mint fortune Portugal forest fires three
0:21
days of mourning for 62 victims how do
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you feel after hearing or reading these
0:28
headlines fear sadness boredom and
0:32
difference did you imagine yourself in
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that fire did you imagine being a
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refugee a surprise millionaire day by
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day we are exposed to endless streams of
0:45
news updates information our brains are
0:48
busier than ever but how much of it
0:50
really impacts who we are how we feel
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and what we do the impersonality of the
0:55
media can make us film u n-- online even
0:58
with the comments section at our
0:59
fingertips the world can feel very
1:01
one-dimensional we're looking for ways
1:04
to understand the world we live in and
1:06
develop our own story our own career so
1:09
reach out to nonfiction unsurprisingly
1:12
nonfiction books have been on the rise
1:13
in the past decade now fiction can offer
1:15
something new more knowledge on a
1:17
certain subject a life hack I also get
1:20
excited by titles like the innovators
1:23
dilemma start with why increase your
1:26
focus by the way how's everybody's
1:28
4-hour workweek going I like to think
1:33
I'm in control of my life just like you
1:36
are I go for a coffee go to work spend
1:39
time with friends and family and
1:40
sometimes I pick up a book it can be
1:43
nonfiction or fiction
1:45
usually nonfiction because that at least
1:47
offers me something straightforward and
1:50
in the meantime I read a lot more I read
1:53
my texts emails reviews long reads in
1:56
that sense it's not that we're not
1:57
reading its what we're reading how many
2:01
of you have read a book of fiction this
2:02
year and I'm in a work of literary
2:06
all right and I'm in a book of literary
2:08
fiction not popular fiction no bondage
2:11
love story about the color gray
2:15
literary fiction can usher us into other
2:18
worlds it can make a step into other
2:22
realities but we don't do this passively
2:25
we have to do the work reading books is
2:29
thought in action the joy of a single
2:32
tasking mind but there's another
2:35
important reward that is often left
2:37
behind and that's what I want to explore
2:39
with you today former President Obama
2:42
articulated it seamlessly in an
2:44
interview he said when I think about how
2:47
I understand my role as a citizen
2:48
setting aside being president and the
2:51
most important set of understandings
2:52
that I bring to that position of a
2:53
citizen the most important stuff I've
2:55
learned I think I've learned from novels
2:57
it has to do with empathy it has to do
3:00
with being comfortable with the notion
3:01
that the world is complicated and full
3:03
of grace but that they're still truth
3:07
empathy that word is buried about a lot
3:12
empathy is the friendly enemy to our
3:15
feeling of self-importance storytelling
3:18
can help us to not only understand but
3:20
feel the complexity the emotions the
3:22
situations of distance others it can be
3:26
a vital antidote to the stress of all
3:28
the noise around us like meditation and
3:32
I will tell you a little bit about how
3:34
last summer I borrowed the new Dave
3:37
Eggers book for my mom heroes of the
3:39
frontier Dave Eggers is one of my
3:42
favorite writers I like to cover so in
3:44
good spirits i sat down in my beach
3:46
chair the journey began to my own
3:50
surprise I didn't like the first hundred
3:52
pages I couldn't relate relate at all to
3:54
the main character Josey a 40-something
3:57
single mom from Ohio who quits her job
3:59
as a dentist and takes her kids to
4:02
Alaska to stay she didn't even bother to
4:05
tell her ex-husband she was leaving but
4:08
I stuck with it and towards the end
4:10
Josie and her kids are rushing through
4:12
the force desperate to make it back to
4:14
the civil civilized world rains pouring
4:17
they're all scratched and bloody from
4:20
running through the branches but finally
4:21
define an abandoned cabin where they can
4:23
sleep and they're so happy they're safe
4:27
now I'm not a very emotional person but
4:30
as I was reading this my eyes were
4:33
getting to well up I got very emotional
4:34
and I thought to myself what made me
4:37
change from not liking the book to being
4:39
so invested in it from indifference to
4:41
caring to deep emotion how did this
4:44
happen it happened because Eggers
4:47
artfully triggered my imagination by
4:49
describing her every motion he described
4:52
a scenery of Alaska as deeply as his
4:55
scenery of her thoughts the better I got
4:58
to know Josie the mark could relate to
5:00
her feelings and her actions just like
5:02
when you get to know somebody in your
5:03
life the more I got into the book the
5:07
more my mind started single tasking
5:09
scientists call this narrative immersion
5:12
transcending the here and now it reduces
5:15
externally focused attention there by
5:16
increasing deeper reflection what
5:20
happens is twofold but we mirror how we
5:23
would feel in the situation the main
5:25
characters in we also simulate their
5:27
mental state and imagine being them so I
5:31
was imagining how I would feel if I was
5:33
road-tripping with two children but at
5:36
the same time I was imagining how would
5:38
how it would feel to be Josie empathy
5:41
the human form of mind reading good
5:46
writers can create a storyline that
5:49
takes us by the hand and lets our
5:51
imagination do the rest like a fairy
5:53
tale as Albert Einstein said if you want
5:56
your kids to be intelligent read them
5:58
fairy tales if you want them to be very
6:00
intelligent read them more fairy tales
6:03
why because the slow pace of reading
6:08
allows us to pay attention to the
6:10
language the metaphors the complexities
6:12
it allows our creative imagination to
6:15
connect the dots and find the deeper
6:17
layers in another story in this time of
6:20
social networking self-absorption and
6:23
individualism some social scientists say
6:27
we are experiencing an epidemic of
6:30
narcissism an age of entitlement well
6:33
sometimes we yearn for pasts with
6:35
closely communities where everybody
6:37
looks out for each other what we're
6:39
doing is we're desperately searching for
6:41
understand the world we live in now but
6:45
given the increasing complexity of our
6:46
world it's more important than ever that
6:48
we get out of our own on and offline
6:50
echo chambers and do everything to
6:53
understand the other and spark our
6:56
imagination literature searches and
6:59
poses questions it doesn't provide any
7:01
ready-made answers Obama mentioned a
7:04
certain truth that can be found through
7:06
literature this truth may be found in a
7:09
humanist that we're all aching for to
7:11
feel deeply connected literature as a
7:13
way of reminding us that the stranger is
7:17
the ambition with which we turn to
7:19
non-fiction books we can also faster -
7:22
which literature this vintage art form a
7:25
life hack Ivana la lettre can enrich us
7:28
and change us from the inside out
7:31
narcissism is the dark side of
7:34
individualism fiction can help us to
7:38
disconnect from ourselves and tap into
7:41
an emotional and prosthetic side that we
7:44
don't often take the time to explore
7:46
something to think about this weekend
7:49
when you're passing by your local
