"When there are multiple versions of a story, you really have three ways to go. You can pick the most sensational version. You can try to balance things in your gut to get to what you think is the honest truth. Or you can err on the side of kindness"
About this Quote
Isaacson lays out an ethical fork in the road that every biographer, journalist, and professional eavesdropper eventually meets: the story you can sell, the story you can defend, and the story you can live with. The line lands because it doesn’t pretend that “truth” arrives cleanly when sources conflict. It admits the messy backstage reality of narrative-making: you are always editing, always choosing, and your choices have consequences for real people.
The first option, “the most sensational version,” is less a temptation than an indictment. It names the market logic that rewards heat over light, the version that will travel farthest on the social graph. The second path sounds noble - “balance things in your gut” - but Isaacson quietly undercuts it by anchoring truth in instinct. “Gut” is a confession: even honesty can be a vibe check, shaped by bias, access, and the storyteller’s own appetites.
Then comes the pivot: “err on the side of kindness.” In a culture that treats harshness as rigor, Isaacson reframes kindness as a methodological choice, not a sentimental one. He’s not arguing for whitewashing; he’s pointing to the asymmetry of harm. If you choose wrong in the sensational direction, the damage is loud and sticky. If you choose wrong in the kind direction, you risk underplaying a scandal, but you preserve a basic human margin of safety.
The subtext is Isaacson’s own domain: writing about powerful figures whose mythologies are contested and whose legacies are partly manufactured by the biographies we keep commissioning. When facts fracture, character becomes the real subject - including the author’s.
The first option, “the most sensational version,” is less a temptation than an indictment. It names the market logic that rewards heat over light, the version that will travel farthest on the social graph. The second path sounds noble - “balance things in your gut” - but Isaacson quietly undercuts it by anchoring truth in instinct. “Gut” is a confession: even honesty can be a vibe check, shaped by bias, access, and the storyteller’s own appetites.
Then comes the pivot: “err on the side of kindness.” In a culture that treats harshness as rigor, Isaacson reframes kindness as a methodological choice, not a sentimental one. He’s not arguing for whitewashing; he’s pointing to the asymmetry of harm. If you choose wrong in the sensational direction, the damage is loud and sticky. If you choose wrong in the kind direction, you risk underplaying a scandal, but you preserve a basic human margin of safety.
The subtext is Isaacson’s own domain: writing about powerful figures whose mythologies are contested and whose legacies are partly manufactured by the biographies we keep commissioning. When facts fracture, character becomes the real subject - including the author’s.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
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