I read this somewhere: “The man who knows his limitations has none.” That, to me, means knowing when to hire a professional to do something that I have no business attempting myself. But yet here I am writing my own biography.

I am from a suburb of San Francisco called Los Altos. It was a great place to grow up, and now it is a beautiful place to visit. When I was a kid, my interests were varied: football, bagel dogs, Stephen King, baseball, Stouffer’s pizzas, Rocky Road, music, nacho...