Structure: thematic and causal, not birth to present
Profiles are usually thematic-causal rather than birth-to-present chronology. Backstory enters when it changes present meaning.
Evidence: records, accounts, and counterevidence
Draw on these sources:
- interviews
- documents
- contemporaneous records
- third-party accounts
- physical setting
- decisions
- outcomes
- counterevidence
Character: reveal traits through choice
Search for contradictions and for the shadows of strengths.
Context: separate agency from environment and luck
Ask what could transfer to another person or time, and what could not.
Ending: change the reader's understanding
End with a changed understanding of the person, not a verdict on whether they were "great".
Main risks
Watch for these failures:
- outcome bias
- founder mythology
- psychological speculation
- using public self-description as fact
- chronology as structure
- treating success as proof of decision quality
AI role: map sources, never invent motive
Timeline and source mapper, interview question generator from evidence gaps, cross-case comparison assistant. No invented motive.