Carlos Chiriboga

You know, when I was 26, just like Jazz, I was ostensibly very intelligent, yet still managing to make really bad life choices.

Yeah.

Like, most of my problems were self-inflicted.

Like, I just, like, I was my— Deeply relatable.

Yeah, I was my own worst enemy.

So, although you may not think it when you look at a 26-year-old Saudi woman who grew up on the moon, she is also a self-insertion character.

Ryland was the first time I sat down and I said, like, okay, for once, I'm not just going to base a character on myself.

I'm going to make a new character out of whole cloth.

So I made him, like, I'm a bit of a Pollyanna, but I wouldn't consider myself overly innocent, right?

I wouldn't consider myself naive.

And Ryland is a little bit naive.

And he's also not super brave.

And he's also, like, you know, he's got his flaws.

And so I created that character out of whole cloth.

So that's the first time I...

I did that.

If you're looking for the self-insertion character in Project Hail Mary, it's Strat.

No, no.

It's Strat.

Strat is less who I am, but who I would love to be.