Watching the argument over online piracy unfold in the US is like watching chimpanzees drive a car. They fight over direction but they don’t give a crap if they take the rest of us off a goddamned cliff with them. Here’s my problem with both sides in this Greek tragedy: SOPA = stupid If it [...]

January 18th was a big day in the fight against Internet censorship legislation. As you may have noticed, major websites like Wikipedia and Reddit took their content offline to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). These two pieces of legislation would make dramatic changes to the Internet, [...]

Writing isn’t a talent—it’s a skill. You can get better at it through practice. If you want awesome verbal pectoral muscles: If you want to get better, you could write a novel, or a textbook. But there’s a much easier way: Freewriting Freewriting is like a verbal sprint. You write a lot, really fast, and [...]

Ever notice that companies mirror their leaders in personality, expectations and culture?  I had met Ian Lurie on several occasions over the last couple years and immediately learned to respect his unmatched knowledge, integrity and vision.  His company and, more importantly, the people at Portent mirror Ian. When the opportunity came to collaborate with him [...]

If I look at Portent’s growth over the last 16 years, we’ve had what my COO calls the Graph of Shame: Some of that might be due to economic poop hitting the fan. And some of it is natural turnover. But the Graph of Shame is a dead giveaway that a business isn’t scaling as [...]

As of yesterday, Portent officially has a President and a CEO, and they’re separate people. Why? Why would I bring in a business partner after all these years? That means I have to share the glory of running my own agency! Ian takes a brief pause to laugh, but bites it back before the giggles [...]

Portent’s had a fantastic run so far: 16 years in business, great clients and fascinating work, day in and day out. But there comes a point when one multi-tasking nerd (me) can’t further grow the company. So I’m thrilled that Steve Gahler has signed on as President and Partner at Portent, Inc. Steve’s going to [...]

Yesterday I wrote about how effort does not equal results. Results are always better. Great results come from testing and tweaking your own routine. You can set up a virtuous cycle: You get more efficient, and have more time to learn more about your job, which helps you be more efficient, and so on. I’ve [...]

I got called an elitist a little while back. I was at a social thing—I think normal people call them ‘parties’. I call them ‘opportunities for me to make an ass of myself’. Here’s the conversation: Other person: My friend got fired last month. Totally unfair. Me: mmm hmmmm I was hoping that’d end the [...]

I just can’t make this one any more bizarre. Maybe they’re hiring someone to write their social media help wanted posts.