JamesR wrote:Good point, I have heard that we remember facts easier when it has been presented in narrative form. However when I think back to reading personal finance books in narrative form (The Wealthy Barber, Pig and the Python, The Richest Man in Babylon, Rich Dad Poor Dad), I wonder if narrative is all that effective, given how few key core concepts are ultimately conveyed from the hundreds of pages & hours of reading required. In fact, it seems there's quite a limit on the speed and number of concepts that can be introduced in narrative form without leaving the reader frustrated..
I agree that simply reading a fact alone is not really enough, especially without the repetition. Narrative isn't necessarily required for repetition though. There's probably ways to repeat lists, probably hybrid prose/list approach anyways. I feel that we're definitely going in a more list-based or outliner-based direction anyways, given how many blog posts will combine prose & lists or outlines.
JamesR is right, narrative has a very high words-to-content ratio compared a a condensed list of facts. almost all prose has 1 or maybe 2 ideas to convey. in fact when humans encounter a story with more ideas, they deem it complex, confusing, or both. but it seems to brute these are two different bottlenecks in conveying thought.
narrative is good at conveying facts to the more intuitive, emotional (?) mind. lists of facts are good for conveying, well, lists of facts to willing recipients. it would be extremely inefficient to report an inventory list as narrative ("when jack came to the second drawer, he stumbled upon 15 screws. then he saw 19 nails.."), simply padding it with fluff. but the goal of a list of stuff is to store this information in the fact-part of the brain to be recalled upon conscious thought ("how many nails were there?").
but a list of moral values, on the other hand, is probably better told as narrative to humans, not like this:
- don't hurt people
- don't take their stuff
- Though shalt not eat seafood lacking scales
the point of conveying these types of ideas or mindsets is to influence day-to-day behavior and decision making, which is probably much less conscious in humans than some of them would like to admit, and likely mostly functions in some kind of animal part of the brain and via emotions ("man kiss man! horrible feeling in stomach! feel like seeing tiger! search for nearest rock and initiate stoning!")
regarding the repetition, brute has also speculated if narrative just organically incorporates some memorization techniques. or reversely, if memorization techniques are just narrative hacked and without the fluff.
for example is seems scientifically proven that humans can burn pretty much any information into their brain using spaced repetition systems, which determine the optimal (for retention) delay between repetition to commit information to memory.
brute is uncertain wether there are several, completely distinct types of memory in humans, or if it is more of a revers pyramid where most information gets forgotten, some of it can be consciously recalled, a few things make it into the core part of "who humans are" (if there is such a thing). brute there are probably different strategies for retaining and conveying information depending on which it is.
and 
to bridge it. Fact of life. 
