Anecdotes are not data. If you are looking for data, listening to a story about what happened to a friend who once should not crowd his rational decision making.
But hope is real.
Every time you know he faces a difficult situation, sharing a positive anecdote about that friend who once went through something like this, that is useful. They are not useful data, but it is a useful hook for hope. And hope amplifies our history of possibility and could make it easier for us to get where we are going.
On the other hand, sharing the anecdote about that time, everything exploded and failed, but has no hope and that is not useful.
The best data is better data. But stories can (and should) be used as fuel.
