Insight
Dicks: Memorable stories sustain a relatable emotional core throughout the narrative
“The more relatable that ending moment is, the more deep the more resonant it is through the movie, as opposed to what happens in a lot of movies, which is, it just sort of lands at the end, because they know they have to wrap it up at the end. Some movies carr…”
Insight
Dicks: Stories With Unresolved Endings Resonate Longer Than Neatly Resolved Ones
“When a story is not complete, when there are still unanswered questions at the end of a story, when the audience can sort of play it out a little bit on their own, those stories tend to hang with an audience much more. So we want our stories to not be wrapped …”
Insight
Dicks: Storytellers can only omit details that hinder narrative flow
“I think the extent of lying in a story amounts to, I'm allowed to take things out of stories that are inconvenient for the story. Not inconvenient for me, but because they make the story not run as well.”
Insight
Matthew Dicks: Inactive characters should be cut from stories to preserve attention
“Like, you're just stealing bandwidth from the audience, mentioning that Martin was also in the car. Like, if you don't do anything, you're out of the car. You're irrelevant to me at that point because you're irrelevant to the audience.”
Insight
Matthew Dicks: Storytellers must highlight their own foolish mistakes, not hide them
“If I did something stupid over the course of the story, I'm not going to remove the stupid thing I did in an effort to make myself look better. In fact, I will enhance the stupid thing I did, because I know that's what audiences really want. You know, that vul…”
Insight
Matthew Dicks: 'But' Is the Most Powerful Word in Storytelling
“I always tell people the but is the most powerful word in all of storytelling.”
Insight
Matthew Dicks: Describing What Something Is Not Creates Narrative Energy
“What something is not is more powerful than what it is.”
Insight
Matthew Dicks: Small micro-moments are more powerful stories than extreme events
“If we start to recognize that our lives are filled with stories, that they're everywhere, that we don't need enormous moments in order to carry the day, and instead small moments are actually some of the most powerful moments we can ever share.”
Insight
Matthew Dicks: Suspense is the strategic exclusion and inclusion of information
“It's simply
The strategic exclusion of information alongside the strategic inclusion of information.
That's what suspense is.
It's, I'm going to tell you some of it, but not all of it.”
Insight
Dicks: Multi-decade stories work best framed within a short present-day timeline
“Nobody wants to hear a forty-year story. A forty-year story sucks, right? So what we do is we turn the forty-year story into a week-long story, which is, my son is getting ready to go to camp And I don't want him to make the same mistake I made, so I'm gonna t…”
Insight
Matthew Dicks: Secondhand stories lack the power and vulnerability of personal narratives
“People want to hear the story of the person sitting across from them. They want to know that you're the one speaking because that requires vulnerability. If I tell you a story and it's not about me, the only vulnerability required is public speaking.”
Insight
Dicks: Keynote speeches must communicate only one core message
“For someone who says, can you help me with my keynote?
We start at the end, just like a story.
What are you trying to say?
And when they say, I'm trying to say three things, I say, well, you can't.
You gotta say one thing.”
Insight
Dicks: Isolate punchlines into single-sentence paragraphs for dramatic impact
“They lose the punch in the previous paragraph of, you know, the eight sentences and the punch is the last one.
And I say, take the punch out and make it its own paragraph.
It looks weird in the eyes of an editor because it is associated with the paragraph befo…”
Insight
Dicks: Aim for a six-to-one positive-to-corrective feedback ratio on writing
“In teaching, we try to achieve a six to one ratio, six positive comments for every corrective comment that we're going to offer, and try to make that your home, too.”
Disclosure
Matthew Dicks carries five backup anecdotes to re-engage drifting audiences
“I always walk around with what I say is five anecdotes, that if I feel like I'm losing the audience, I can throw that out and grab them back and hold them for a while.”
Insight
Dicks: Storytelling transforms ordinary objects and products into meaningful symbols
“When we tell a story about something like a spoon, something as simple as that, it suddenly becomes not a spoon anymore. And the better we are at telling stories about ourselves, the people we love, the products we make, the services we offer, you know, all of…”
Insight
Dicks: Reducing speaking pace before climaxes amplifies emotional impact
“I just know that if I say these words with a reduced pace, your anticipation increases, and therefore when I get the spoon, it's more likely that you will have an emotional reaction to it.”
Insight
Dicks: Humor alters brain chemistry to boost perceived intelligence and receptiveness
“Humor changes brain chemistry in really meaningful ways. You know, causes you to feel closer to me. Causes you to perceive me as intelligent, even if I'm not intelligent. Makes you feel better about the world. Actually improves your cognition. All of those che…”
Insight
Dicks: Humor following difficult story beats provides relief and signals safety
“If you have to tell a part of a story that's really difficult for people to hear, a laugh after that can afford a breath. It can allow people to go, okay, I just heard that bad thing, but he made me laugh. He must be okay. Now we can move on.”
Assertion Supported
Dicks: Comic characters with less detail evoke stronger audience connection
“They found that when you compare comic book characters, the comic book characters that have less visual detail are the ones people feel more connected to.”
Insight
Dicks: Compelling trailers establish relatable stakes without revealing resolutions
“We want to make sure that people understand sort of what the problem the character is facing, what that problem is. And Make sure that it's something that we all can go, yeah, I get that. But not solve the problem, or even let us know if the problem will be so…”
Assertion Supported
Dicks: Early Facebook retention hinged on acquiring seven friends in ten days
“At Facebook early on when they were failing to gain traction, they looked at their data and they realized that if a user accumulated seven friends, made seven friends or seven connections on Facebook in 10 days, they were likely to stay on the platform. And if…”
Disclosure
Matthew Dicks: Planning Six Months Ahead Prevents Finding New Opportunities
“And I resist it all the time. Cause I feel like if you've planned out six months, we don't have the opportunity for me to stumble upon the new thing that I want to stumble upon.”
Assertion Partly supported
Dicks: Steve Jobs opened the 2007 iPhone keynote citing a 2.5-year wait
“When Jobs introduces the iPhone in 2007, his first sentence on stage is, I've been waiting two and a half years to share this with you today.”
