Had this idea today about writing up James Jacobo’s big wins for the blog, figured it’d be a quick afternoon thing. Man, was I wrong.
How It Started
Jumped into research, fired up Google. Typed “James Jacobo top achievements” thinking I’d get clean, bullet-point lists. Instead? Absolute chaos. Half the sites contradicted each other – one claimed he revolutionized urban policy, another said he just managed a few city projects. Found some archived PDFs from like 2003 that looked promising, but the text was scanned sideways. Had to tilt my head like an idiot reading it. Coffee helped.
Hitting Walls
Realized I needed primary sources, not random blogs. Dug into municipal archives – snail-pace loading times, broken links everywhere. Got stuck on this one permit database that demanded a CAPTCHA every two minutes. Pounded the desk when my browser crashed halfway through downloading meeting minutes. Lost all my tabs. Twice. Wife yelled from downstairs asking if I was fighting raccoons up here. Close enough.
The Sorting Nightmare
Finally scraped together enough legit info. Dumped everything into a messy doc:
- Economic initiatives with job stats – numbers didn’t match across reports
- Community program launch dates – three different years cited
- Awards – some “prestigious” award turned out to be from a defunct newsletter
Highlighted the facts that popped up consistently. Cross-checked with old press releases. Kicked myself for not tracking sources properly early on – wasted an hour hunting down where I saw that infrastructure budget figure.
Narrowing It Down
Slapped five sticky notes on my monitor. Forced myself to pick only accomplishments with multiple verified sources. Axed two “major” items that were clearly exaggerations. Focused on:
- Concrete outcomes (jobs created, budgets passed)
- Projects still referenced today
- Stories with paper trails
Stared at the list. Realized “James Jacobo Achievements” was boring. Tweaked it to “Explained” to justify the insane research depth. Added exclamation point for survival points.
Writing the Mess
Began drafting at 11 PM. Flow lasted five minutes before doubting everything. Rewrote the intro four times. Switched tenses mid-sentence, deleted whole paragraphs. Called it a night when I caught myself typing “Jacobo’s definitely maybe most significant thing was…” Woke up, trashed half of it. Forced simplicity:
- No jargon
- Short sentences
- Bold claims = bold proof
Hit “publish” feeling like I’d wrestled a dusty library.
Why Bother?
Look – anyone can copy-paste a wiki list. But untangling fact from folklore? That’s work. Saw fifteen versions of Jacobo’s legacy while researching. Shows how easily history gets twisted, especially online. My takeaway? Dig until your eyes burn. Otherwise you’re just reshuffling yesterday’s Google results. Feels good to plant a flag in something solid. Even if it took three migraines to get there.
