The more distant my former working life becomes, the more important I seem to remember being. It’s professional “stretching”—kind of like a fisherman describing a trout that grows an inch for every beer he drinks.

I spent my entire career as a “computer tech guy.” Climbed the ladder from the basement-dwelling days of COBOL into the sunlight of management. But the higher I get in my memories, the thinner the oxygen becomes. I retired fifteen years ago. In my mind’s eye, the company was a glass-and-steel house of cards, and I was the only guy holding the Scotch tape.

This self-inflation shows up most clearly in what I call "Title Creep." When I first moved into this 55-plus community, I introduced myself as a former MIS Manager. A few years later, over pickleball, I'd evolved into the IT Director. Lately, I've been telling people I was the Chief Technology Officer. CTO. C-Level. Boardroom stuff.