Katherine Boyle

And I was like, that sounds great.

Like I can just, you know, just write during the day for, you know, three to six hours or whatever, and then do what I need to do for my real career, my real job, right?

You know, I was so convinced that was going to happen.

And so when I got the letter, I was like, wait, wait, I'm just a, right now I'm just a copywriter at, you know, the lowest person on the totem pole inside the Washington Post without a byline, without anything.

I'm not even a real reporter.

What am I going to do?

What am I going to do?

I should probably figure out if I can actually make this a real career.

So I sort of convinced myself that intelligence isn't that different than reporting.

You have sources.

You have to have a network of nodes and people who are telling you information about whatever you're covering.

You have to be really good at asking questions.

You have to be good at listening, reading people, knowing what's true, knowing what's false.

making decisions very quickly.

And part of me was like, okay, if I can't do that in the agency, I could do that at the Washington Post.

I just have to convince them to let me do it.

And it turned out to be the most opportune time to be in media for a young person.

Really?

Yeah, because I was cheap.

I was making $30,000 a year, and I would write as much as they wanted me to.