“Why do we change our words, actions, and habits?
“If you don’t set an ending, all your efforts are in vain.”

★ Highly recommended Hawaiian mansion ★

When the future seems uncertain and life doesn't go as planned, we have two choices:
Either blame yourself or give up.
Psychologist Ben Ambridge offers a new milestone on this fork in the road.
It is a breakthrough through storytelling.
Why "story"? Because the human brain constantly predicts what will happen next.
It's no exaggeration to say that success or failure hinges on the narrative, as our brain controls and manipulates our behavior to lead us toward a conclusion that matches the narrative it predicts. Professor Ben Ambridge, whose TED Talk on psychology has garnered over 3 million views, analyzed all the stories that drive human behavior across politics, history, and literature, condensing them into "eight master plots."

Depending on how you use them, each masterplot can help you make important life decisions (Quest), increase your life satisfaction (Untangled), overcome self-blame (Icarus), overcome addictions (Monster), overcome competitors (Discord), receive support and love (Underdog), find meaning in life (Sacrifice), and escape rock bottom (The Hole).
On the other hand, if we distort it in the wrong direction, it can lead us down the wrong path, such as being caught up in vain delusions, making wrong choices, becoming conspiracy theorists, or ruining a business.


Curious about your future? Discover the one and only "story" that will save your life through this book.
Just choosing a narrative can change your life.
Now you will write your own success story that no one else can ever replicate.

It took me a full 20 years to figure out the impact the Masterplot had on humanity's survival.
At first, I saw these master plots as nothing more than tools for writing academic papers or as fodder for conversations with film buffs or literature enthusiasts.
But that wasn't all.
So, what I have come to realize and what I will share with you in this book is as follows.
Whether we realize it or not, humans imbue nearly every experience we have with a master plot.
We not only allow this master plot to influence our decisions, but sometimes we even manipulate the plot to achieve our own goals.

--- p.11

Numerous masterplots have been presented over the past few years.
Journalist and author Christopher Booker has suggested seven master plots, science fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut, mathematician Andrew Regan, and computer scientist Marco Del Vecchio have six, screenwriter Blake Snyder has ten, and even film professor Ronald Tobias has twenty.
All of these are perfect ways to cut a cake, but I think eight categories are the most appropriate.
Because we neither lump together different master plots nor categorize similar master plots too finely.
And while Booker, Vonnegut, and others have focused on novels, I have much more ambitious goals.
The eight master plots I've established—Quest, Untangled, Icarus, Monster, Discord, Underdog, Sacrifice, and Hole—deal not only with the work but also with the real world.

--- p.13~14

A master plot provides a neurochemical reward for the audience with a familiar story, and it's crucial for the writer to create a story that perfectly balances predictability and unpredictability.
But the masterplot recipe isn't just helpful to novelists.
We also view events that occur in reality through the lens of eight master plots.
While we allow the masterplot to control us, we also use the masterplot to control others.
Why is this so? Because plots, whether fictional or real, constantly reinforce each other.
The reason the eight master plots were created in the first place was to retell familiar stories we have actually experienced to others.

--- p.17~18

The master plot can do anything because it distills the essence of human behavior into a hyper-focused form.
It can deceive us, trick us, and mislead us, but it can also inspire us.
As we'll see, the master plot involves humanity going to the moon (The Quest), fighting starvation (The Sacrifice), overcoming addiction (The Monster), ending blood feuds (The Discord), comforting grieving parents (Icarus), tearing couples apart (The Untangled), and helping a sports team beat 5,000-to-1 odds (The Underdog).
But the master plot can do more than this.
If we master the unique power of the Masterplot, it can help us overcome the limits of scientific discovery, strive for a just society, save lives, and (perhaps) prevent the imminent extinction of humanity.

--- p.19~20

The most important feature of the quest masterplot is that it forces us to do things we otherwise wouldn't have done, simply because of our desire to become the hero of the quest story.
--- p.43

Stories that follow the Untangled masterplot recipe, regardless of genre, are fundamentally about the battle of light over darkness.
First of all, it starts with chaos.
Someone or something is not who they appear to be, is struggling with their true identity, or is believing the wrong person or relationship.
But with the help of an unexpected person, this tangled thread is unraveled and the order of the universe is restored.
The lesson the Untangled story teaches us is that to find happiness, we must reject the darkness—social hierarchy, power, money, convention—and embrace the light—awakening, pursuing dreams, love, and the path less traveled.

--- p.92

Monster narratives are very powerful.
To prevent the tragedies that are happening today, we must guard against attempts to portray certain groups as "heroes" and others as "monsters" that must be defeated by the heroes.

--- p.185

The master plot of discord is engraved in our DNA.
From birth, we are wary of those who are different from us and react positively to those who harass those who are 'different'.
We tend to take sides, even over trivial matters like what kind of art we prefer, by finding an equal opponent, a mirror image of the other side.
The conflict we have brought upon ourselves has spiraled out of control, and we continue to fight even as we forget why we started the fight in the first place.
While feuds in sports are often cute, they're also incredibly common, like the ones that unfold on the streets of London or Kosovo.
It's not entirely gloomy, though.
While narratives of discord often result in death and destruction, they can also be catalysts for human progress, especially scientific progress.
--- p.232~233

Let's not let the bad guys win.
Or at least not every time.
In this book, and over the past decade, we've seen countless instances of villains twisting the master plot for their own benefit.
Big corporations that portray themselves as weak, gangs, families locked in long-term feuds, conspiracy theorists (Untangled), Eichmann and the Nazis (monsters), and Donald Trump (weaknesses and a-holes).
The lesson of this book, especially the final chapter, is that we don't have to accept this kind of misframing.
Masterplot is not (yet) Google's, Apple's, or generative AI's.
The Masterplot belongs to all of us, and we all have the choice and responsibility to reject the distorted Masterplot and pursue the universally beneficial Masterplot.

--- p.388

No matter what framing you choose, it's your life and your story.
This is your life story.

--- p.391