Category: Personal

This morning I woke up with a lot of regret. I really don’t like my blog post from last night. To use a common SEOmoz saying, it was “TA” but not “GFEE.” I shared my thoughts transparently and I authentically don’t like the “growth hacker” terminology, but why am I writing about that? It doesn’t help anyone and it tears…

Geraldine sometimes tries to describe my outlook on life as cynical optimism. I think that’s a fair assessment. I generally believe that humans will do a lot of stupid, selfish, hurtful, tragic things to each other and themselves. I see this as exacerbated by behavioral and evolutionary psychology, which is poorly understood and even more poorly compensated for on an…

In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed myself drawn to some exceptional examples of the written word. I’m not sure why. I don’t normally seek out poetic writers or articles that focus on the flourish and elegance of the words rather than the content, but when it’s caught my eye recently, it’s made me want to remember how it was…

When people ask me what I want to do with my life or what I’m trying to do with SEOmoz, I often mentioned Chuck Feeney, founder of Duty Free shops and the study of the book, The Billionaire Who Wasn’t. The New York Times recently wrote about Mr. Feeney’s efforts to rid himself of his last $1.5 Billion through charitable…

I got a question last week over email that I realize I’ve never answered publicly on the web before: Whenever I hear anybody in the office say “I don’t have time to do that” I usually refer to you. That you manage to write blog posts, tweet, answer Q&As, participate in forums, email people back, plan and give talks, you’re…

Many have posited that the brilliance of Twitter is in the limitation provided by 140 characters. This “restriction” in fact “frees” (some) contributors to be uncommonly communicative, creative and profound in the shortened medium, and builds expectations for consumers of the content. In much the same fashion, I believe this blog can benefit from some ground rules laid at the…