The Story in Our Mind

Humans are extremely good at finding evidence that confirms the story in their mind.

Once we decide who we are and how the world works, our brain becomes a pattern-matching machine. It scans the environment, not for truth, but for agreement. “See?” it says. “I was right all along.”

Disconfirming evidence is ignored because it’s inconvenient. It threatens the story we’ve already paid for—with time, identity, and social belonging.

So we curate our inputs. We follow, read, watch, and listen to things that nod along. Not consciously. Automatically.

That’s why changing someone’s mind with facts rarely works. Facts don’t beat stories. Better stories do.

The hard work isn’t finding evidence.
The hard work is questioning why this story matters so much to us in the first place.

Because the moment you stop defending the story, you finally get to learn something new.