The Sea We Swim In: How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World

by Frank Rose

A practical guide to “narrative thinking” — and why it matters in a world defined by data

In The Sea We Swim In, Frank Rose leads us to a new understanding of stories and their role in our lives. For decades, experts from many fields—psychologists, economists, advertising and marketing executives—failed to register the power of narrative. Scientists thought stories were frivolous. Economists were knee-deep in theory. Marketers just wanted to cut to the sales pitch. Yet stories, not reasoning, are the key to persuasion.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, stories determine how we view the world and our place in it. That means the tools of professional storytellers—character, world, detail, voice—can unlock a way of thinking that’s ideal for an age in which we don’t passively consume media but actively participate in it. Building on insights from cognitive psychology and neuroscience, Rose shows us how to see the world in narrative terms, not as a thesis to be argued or a pitch to be made but as a story to be told.

Leading brands and top entertainment professionals already understand the vast potential of storytelling. From Warby Parker to Mailchimp to The Walking Dead, Rose explains how they use stories to establish their identity and turn ordinary people into fans—and how you can do the same.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Business, Sociology

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

FRANK ROSE is the author most recently of The Sea We Swim In: How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World, published in 2021 in the US and the UK and described as "critical thinking for an age of pervasive media" by The Wall Street Journal. His previous book, The Art of Im­mer­sion: How the Digital Gen­era­tion Is Remak­ing Holly­wood, Mad­ison Ave­nue, and the Way We Tell Stories, was a landmark work that showed how technology is chang­ing the age-old art of storytelling. Sparked by a decade of re­porting on media and technology for Wired, it has been called “a grand trip” by New Scientist and “a new media bible” by the Italian daily la Re­pubblica.
A senior fellow at Colum­bia University School of the Arts, Frank teach­es global busi­ness execu­tives as faculty director of the execu­tive edu­ca­tion seminar Strategic Story­telling. He is also awards director of Columbia's pioneer­ing Digital Story­telling Lab, where in 2016 he launched the annual Break­throughs in Story­telling awards to honor the most innovative approaches to narra­tive from the past year.

Reviews

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I read and write non-fiction, I’m always fascinated with how stories impact the world. When I saw this new book coming out from Frank Rose, I decided to check it out, and it was great. Rose covers a ton of topics in this book that helps you get a better understanding of how stories affect everything from the economy, to polarization, and how businesses can succeed. Not only that, but he also dives into some psychological research throughout the book and explains why different stories and narratives affect us the way they do, which is something I really enjoy learning about. As someone who works in marketing, I can see the majority of this book being beneficial to organizations and entrepreneurs who are working on developing their brand, but I also think the average person will enjoy this book because it helps explain a bit more about how the world works.

[Justin Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

A solid entry point into understanding the omnipresence of constructed narrative; with straightforward prose and engaging case studies, Frank Rose breaks down how brand and media fabricate/enhance their persona and stories, in order to gain recognition and audience's engagement. While the foundational principles presented in The Sea We Swim In are excellent, most of its anecdotes seem to be stuck in the mid 2010s; while success stories from 'millennial brands' (Warby Parker, Harry's, and Marriott) are still valuable, I would've liked the book to offer a perspective on the more recent Gen-Z audience (TikTok, Twitch, and influencer culture are surprisingly absent in the discussion).

The book becomes more observational and less analytical in its last section, where it touches upon QAnon and deepfake, recalling the mass media frenzy surrounding the 2019 election and COVID-19. This abrupt shift in timeline and tone is jarring—partially due to its own disregard of the storytelling components it has spent the first 75% conveying. The Sea We Swim In closes with an inconclusive sentiment: people simply have to be cautious of the content they're consuming; the author is as dumbfounded by the current situation as the rest of us.

In some way I can't fault the unevenness of The Sea We Swim In, as it is a direct reflection of the world at large; it is easy to construct rules and formulas when stories are being created in a controlled environment (whether it is within a company, an advertising agency or a media conglomerate), which is no longer the case with the rise of meme culture, #hashtag, and drama channels. While it might not be as 'current' with the time as I've anticipated, there are still relevant, timeless concepts here worth grasping.

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!***

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating tour of the overlap or storytelling and technology in the worlds of business and entertainment (mostly). Each chapter is full of anecdotes and reporting but Rose gives it an overarching structure that both connects the details but also helps the reader see the larger picture. Author, Audience and Journey are the three fundamentals of story while Character, World, Detail, Voice, Platform and Immersion are the attributes or ingredients that make stories work. Each is outlined and illustrated and connected both to other attributes and to the larger process of storytelling. If you want to have a good understanding of the digital landscape in the world of business and entertainment this is a must read. But storytelling and immersion are such a common part of our culture and environment that this is a useful book for almost anyone. If you happen to be interested in how businesses and creatives wrestle with brand identity, storytelling and image, you will find this book fascinating and enlightening.

[Vovka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good book on the value of stories and how to apply story thinking to modern opportunities and challenges. I probably enjoyed Jonah Sachs’ “Winning the Story Wars” more. Almost the same thesis and scope, but better executed. This book is more recent, and helpfully covers QAnon, etc.

[Lee Woodruff · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who makes presentations and works with data, this book is a much needed primer on the new world of storytelling- complete with great case studies - I binged it like Netflix !

[Greg Talbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Rose's latest "The Sea We Swim in" looks at the design thinking that captures our attention and data trail. With a strong corporate/institutional point of view, he relays corporate America's data-driven journey of bringing the consumer into the narrative.

Cases studies with Millennial hip brands like Burberry and Warby Parker are examined. Their ascent with marketing strategies that appealed to aspiration, community and marketing focused on experiential touchpoints with the customer. Narrative story is explored chapters on narrative, voice, journey, and audience. Selling and messaging to the audience is ingeniously mapped through entertainment modeled on marketing insights, story designs and feedback mechanisms to community portals like Reddit.

Rose skirts the dual-dimension of the book, but doesn't satisfyingly share the narrative voice from the perspective of the audience. Whether it be critics, gatekeepers, influencers, end-users or passerbys. The anarchic Web 1.0 of the 90s, and the change of course in the mid-aughts by Silicon valley is mentioned, but it hardly scratches the larger dissatisfaction of the people being sold to. Ethical concerns of privacy, neoliberal policies trumping morality and bad art are a result of these market-driven trends. The scope is about narrative, but the book doesn't fully address the larger question of the narrative of "us". The larger culture issues about who is allowed to have a voice, the endless identify politics and lack of change behind big branding words, demands we look at the world from beyond the artifice of corporate culture. Instead of accepting it, maybe there is a space to question Warhol's infamous line- "is it all just surface"?

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book! Every once in a while, a book comes along that has me itching to buy a few hundred copies and start handing them out to anyone who will listen to how fabulous it was. THIS is one of them. It starts off simply, discussing stories and the role of storytelling in our lives. Frank Rose than brilliantly drills down into the different elements of story – the audience, the journey, worlds, characters, details, and voice – giving rich & illuminating examples from literature, gaming, tv, movies, and advertising. This section alone is a goldmine of information and advice for writers, creators, marketers, and entertainers, as well as anyone who wants to better understand the stories that surround them all day every day. Part two of the book will make you sit up and pay attention, with his clear and cautionary look at where all the media we consume (entertainment, social media, news) is headed. He talks about corporate surveillance preying on the brain’s reward system, online privacy, even touching on QAnon, deepfakes, and the January 6 Capitol attack in ways I have not seen others do. Run, run, run and get a copy of this book, mark it up, read it again. Please! I need to discuss everything in this one! 10 stars out of 5!!

[Yeti_2_read · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank Rose brings together a massive array of anecdotes and sweeping pop-cultural references to illustrate two main points:
1. We are swimming in a dangerous sea of attention traps in the modern media age.
2. We can examine this phenomenon through a lens of narrative storytelling (Authors taking Audiences on a Journey) with 6 attributes (character, world, detail, voice, platform, immersion) which applies to digital and pre-digital eras in essential but different ways.
Overall the book was a bit too meandering for my taste, but his framework does bring new perspective to the psychological effects of AI & social media. One small piece I really enjoyed, and which sums up a key theme of the book, was his reference to Nobel laureate Herbert Simon’s rabbit-rich, lettuce-poor analogy…in today’s environment “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

[Rob Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tough one to review. It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking look at storytelling/narrative in the modern world and how it drives everything from entertainment to marketing and technology development. It’s well-written and researched, but it only scratches the surface of a rich and complex topic. It’s well organized (with chapters built on elements of story — character, voice, world, etc.), but it almost feels like it could be multiple books. This means it manages to somehow feel both overstuffed and thin at the same time. Still, there’s a lot of excellent material here and it holds some great inspiration for creative thinkers and storytellers.

[Danielle C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that explores the components of a well-written story not from the viewpoint of authors, but marketing, public relations, and entrepreneurial executives. At out base, human being love a good story and will buy into a brand that has one. This book guides executives to think about the story that their brand tells and how to craft it to make it appealing to the consumer. With plenty of real world examples from both media and Wall Street, it is interesting to think of the stories that we immerse ourselves everyday. Illuminating for even those people not working on a brand image, to question the stories we are told in advertising each and every day.

[Karen Calhoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear-eyed approach to using stories to counteract the disconnect we often feel in this digital age. Food for thought in the comments about deep fakes and detection methods. Although the book felt redundant in some places and full of self-importance in other, I definitely learned from reading it!

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

We're surrounded by stories to such an extent that we can't see them, just as a fish can't perceive water. That's the premise of this thoughtful book on how stories shape our world. It's a book for business, for storytellers and those in the storytelling business. It's also for audiences because it is our attention those stories want.

[Florian · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is fascinating that a book about stories can feel so empty and without any coherent storyline itself. The
"method" of the 9 ingredients is just nonsesical to me and seems like it was put on top of the existing chapters. I have read great essays by Frank Rose.
This book seems like a mashup of these. Not like a book.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

stories

I was really excited about this book when I started it an then became bogged down in story after story about how to tell a story. I get the concept but was hoping for some more structure. Model is good for a take away.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars. Massive disappointment. Book rests its authority on a series of disconnected anecdotes that neither teach not entertain. The data-driven promise of its title is distinctly missing in the body.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The material was very good, and the author had some excellent insights. However, the prose was a little stiff.

[Tristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well researched. I wish narrative thinking was valued more outside of the humanities.

[kglibrarian (Karin Greenberg) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book about how narratives inform every area of life from marketing and economics to entertainment and social media.

[Alyssa Foll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very useful information, but I'm not sure that the book fits together as compellingly or cohesively as one might hope.

[Elise ~ BooksForAModernWorld · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found aspects of this book to have very interesting concepts, but the references seemed to be geared to an older audience. I would not recommend this book to anyone in their 20s.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

A nice introduction to the new sea of the century.
Honestly should reread again; got a bit lost since subject is really abstract plus i was just casual reading without thoughts.

[Christina Wilcox]

DNF/skimmed through for work 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was super insightful and thought provoking. I left with a better understanding of how storytelling and narratives work in modern digital times.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really what I was looking for. It's an very college explanation of how stories work, what makes them meaningful, and examples (particularly for sales). I was hoping for more narrative explaining how people were using data and some overarching conclusions on the topic.

[Matthew Shinker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished reading this book about a week ago, and it was really interesting. The author makes a strong case for how to use data and technology to tell your story.