My first job as an opinion columnist was here at Fast Company, writing the back page column for the magazine, circa 2006 or so. The column was about the absurdities of the innovation industry and over-the-top marketing stunts, and anything that could be mined for comic fodder while saying something interesting about the mid-’00s post-crash business environment.

I stopped writing the column because, well, Fortune magazine recruited me and offered me a big pile of money, which is always a pretty good incentive to switch employers. There, I wrote about economics, technology, and media. Before I went into media at the ripe old age of 23, I had been a buy-side tech equity analyst, and had also started a Wall Street site called Dealbreaker that was popular with second-year analysts at investmen

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