Ryan didn't recognize the shape of his own downfall until it was too late to outrun it, that was the thing I understood now, watching it unfold from a careful distance, that he'd built his entire identity on being underestimated favorably, and had never once considered what it would feel like to be underestimated the other way.
The boardroom, when I heard about it secondhand through the same former colleague who'd left that comment online, had apparently not gone well.
"They asked him to walk them through the fall line's creative direction," she told me over coffee, unable to keep the satisfaction fully out of her voice despite clearly trying. "Just… explain the vision. Basic stuff. He talked for ten minutes and said nothing. I watched two board members exchange a look I've only ever see
