The Columns

I get a message from a prospect who wants to start working with me, but their current web agency is demanding an outrageous fee just to exit the contract. Second…

Back in ’99, Google swore it would never run ads. “No ads,” they said, with the wide-eyed innocence of people who still believed the web could remain a pristine commons—an…

Kicking back over the weekend, enjoying a bit of downtime with some digital entertainment, I had a moment that perfectly framed the new frontier of advertising. I was happy to…

The topic of the week has me grinding my teeth a little. It’s the sheer hypocrisy flowing from revenue leaders, that constant, breathless sermon about “Personalization! The customer craves unique…

Last month, the usual October industry event took place. I won’t name it—you know which one. While scrolling through LinkedIn comments, I came across a colleague’s summary of the day:…

I’ve become the kind of man who needs three browsers just to know where he is, what he’s supposed to be doing, and sometimes who the hell he even is.…

We all saw this headline. Amazon versus Perplexity. It’s a classic tech brawl: the established giant protecting its turf versus the disruptive upstart wielding the shiny new weapon of Agentic…

The sound of Bill Hornbuckle admitting to the press that the pricing strategy was a mistake, that the $26 water and the $12 coffee were a “shame on us” moment,…

“There is only one truly serious philosophical problem: suicide,” wrote Camus. For me—half philosopher, half techie—this problem has never been abstract. It has always walked beside me. I’ve seen it…

Monday night, 9:32 PM. An email lands in my inbox.Sender: “WB-827 Assistant Исаев” (that alone should’ve been a clue).Subject: We need your response within 24 hours – Laura Thomas. Inside,…