Katherine Boyle

Can you show me what I should know about this beat?

Like, you do that over and over and over again, and people will tell you what you need to know.

And then they start seeing your name in the paper.

And then they know that you're the person who's gonna write the story about something.

I also think there's something to, some people are really good at listening, and it's a gift.

Growing up in a big family was probably that.

A loud Irish family, I learned how to listen.

But I'm always amazed at like the stories I would break.

It would just be someone coming up to me at a cocktail party or a book party or something, not even necessarily knowing that I was a Washington Post reporter, finding out and then just kind of sharing, just like just getting it off their chest and me saying, you know, that's actually a really important story.

Can I write it?

But I think people are desperate to talk and they're desperate to get that type of attention.

And so it really like in some ways, I think the reporting thing was easier than when I got to Silicon Valley and was nobody.

Right.

It was like I was the Washington Post in Washington, D.C.

Yeah, but not but not a network in Silicon Valley.

I think you can get dropped into any culture and learn it very quickly.

If you know the types of people that are going to talk to you and if you're actually willing to listen.

So I kind of knew it was going to be a temporary thing just because of how bad the business was.

I mean, it was all we talked about was, this was before Jeff Bezos bought the paper.

And I actually decided to leave right as he was buying it.