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It's probably wise to enjoy "business biographies" as lying somewhere on the floor closer to the fiction aisle than the non-fiction.

Most stories are pitched by PR firms (or the other side of the same coin, attempted take-downs). Either way, they're ready-fire-aim -- finding facts to fit a conclusion.

First and foremost they are stories -- written by someone attempting, under deadline, to fit messy, complicated reality into a simple, entertaining narrative to hold your eyeballs.

Think of them as professional fan (or anti-fan) fiction.

Even long-form articles and books that interview many people, while admirable efforts, present a pretty small slice of reality.




With any article, if the PR firm doesn't sell a story, the writer has no interest in the plain give-my-client-press-for-free request.




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