Narrative Kindling.
What really sparks (or smothers) behavior.
I’ve been writing a lot about AI adoption so far.
But the more I think about adoption, the more I think about whether I/we/you/me are over-focusing our attention on the behaviors themselves.
Why do we do what we do (or don’t do)?
The stories we tell ourselves.
We should. We could. We might.
Our behaviors are driven by beliefs and narratives.
About ourselves and about others around us.
These questions roam the race tracks of my brain:
Why do we think we should do some things and not others? Where do those ideas come from?
Why does my friend Ari think AI is incredible but my colleague Grant thinks it’s crap?
Why do graduating college students boo the mention of AI in their commencement speeches while their older siblings spent more time with it than real humans?
Why have I been drawn to write about the Adoption Problem as I’ve been thinking about a (probably more foundational) Narrative Influence?
Social narratives affect our individual narratives. The stories we tell ourselves, for how we should spend our time, for what we should prioritize.
And I’m not necessarily speaking about social narratives from social media.
I’m referring to any story about Someone Else.
The narrative kindling might be a friend mentioning something in conversation. It might be a podcast talking about trends or an interview with someone I think has done something interesting or admirable.
It might be a LinkedIn post (or even someone’s LinkedIn headline, for that matter. Guilty).
Or, yes, it might be a TikTok or Instagram reel.
We ingest (and all too often deeply digest) stories or granular plot points of others that make us question our own behavior (or lack thereof).