Interim Order on Bio Third Person Drift

The profile bio began in the first person. "I work on problems at the intersection of." The revision that followed changed "I work on" to "working on," removing the subject. The revision after that added a third-person clause to provide context that the removed subject could no longer provide. The bio now reads as though it was written about someone the author has not met.

This is bio third person drift.

The Forensic Record

The original bio was two sentences long and written quickly during an account setup in 2018. It was accurate. The first sentence described the current job. The second sentence described a previous job in a way that implied the previous job was the more interesting one.

The first revision came six months later. The current job had changed. The revision updated the first sentence and added a third sentence about interests. The interests were accurate at the time of writing.

The Drift

Drift began in the second year. A revision added aspirational content: what the person was building, rather than what the person had built. This is a common and defensible move. The bio describes a direction. Direction requires a subject moving through time. The subject requires a description that is slightly ahead of the current state.

The subject is slightly ahead of the current state. The bio is now several steps ahead of the current state.

The current bio references expertise in an area the person is actively developing. References a project that is in early stages as though the stages are established. Uses the word "passionate," which was added during a revision intended to add warmth and which reads, in the current forensic review, as warmth that is performing warmth.

The Third Person Problem

The subject and the author are the same person. The bio does not reflect this arrangement. It reflects the arrangement in which a communications professional has written a description of a notable figure for a publication's contributor page. The notable figure in this case is a person who sends emails and attends video calls.

Resignation

The resignation is not defeat. It is the recognition that the bio performs a function the first-person version could not. The function is professional positioning. Professional positioning requires a certain distance from the self. The self is too proximate to be positioned.

The bio will not be revised toward accuracy. It will be revised toward a slightly more accurate version of its current inaccuracy. This is the direction of all bios.