Book completed
Apr. 1st, 2026 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeMagic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way, by Jonah Berger. In this very interesting book, Berger organizes the results of numerous studies by his own team and others to show ways that we can use language more effectively. Often they’re analyzing oodles of data from online sources – like restaurant reviews, from which they learned (for example) that saying “the food was great” is less likely to prompt a visit then saying “the food is great.” Using “was” suggests it could occasionally be good and that’s when the reviewer happened to be there, whereas “is” conveys a more stable, ongoing quality.
Some of the conclusions seem a little too facile, like telling us that in telling a story, we need to start slowly to set the stage, before the action starts. He’s ignoring the fun of joining a story in the middle of a big problem, where we learn what’s going on as we follow our characters dealing with a crisis – only when the crisis is resolved do we start learning more about the bigger picture. His discussions of racism and fixed/growth mindset feel tacked on, too. Nevertheless, it’s all worth reading and very reader-friendly.
Some of the conclusions seem a little too facile, like telling us that in telling a story, we need to start slowly to set the stage, before the action starts. He’s ignoring the fun of joining a story in the middle of a big problem, where we learn what’s going on as we follow our characters dealing with a crisis – only when the crisis is resolved do we start learning more about the bigger picture. His discussions of racism and fixed/growth mindset feel tacked on, too. Nevertheless, it’s all worth reading and very reader-friendly.