Founder's Notebook
Realizations and principles from running the agency, told in the first person and labeled as opinion.
This is the pillar written in the first person. It holds realizations and principles from running our agency, for owners who keep deciding what to delegate, what to automate and what to keep. Most entries are opinion and say so. Some are analysis built on published sources.
Start with the pre-mortem. The post looks at why a room agrees with itself. The idea is one question asked before you commit: assume the plan already failed, now tell me why. The post explains how we run it and how you can run one with a colleague who has no stake in the plan. Alongside it sits a note on why an alert that cries wolf stops being read, where we fixed our own scanner instead of muting it, closing with a short test for the alerts you receive.
The third entry is different in kind. It explains why PHP2Shell is a flaw in PHP itself rather than a WordPress bug, cites the published figures behind that, and sets out what to ask your host this week. It also makes the case for a lead-only site that does not need a PHP server at all, and that part is clearly our view. Read it as sourced analysis first and opinion second.
Disagree with us freely, and expect us to revise some entries as we learn more. Short entries are easy to argue with, which is the point: if one changes how you decide something, or you think we got it wrong, that beats agreement. The search side of our agency runs on the same habits, and working with us on search is what our SEO page describes.
Start here
Run a pre-mortem before you commit to a plan
A pre-mortem is one question asked before you commit: assume the plan already failed, then write down every reason why. It takes one honest reviewer.
An alert that cries wolf stops being read
Our own update scanner kept flagging a tool that was never behind. We fixed the check instead of muting it, and you can do the same.
Every post in Founder's Notebook
An alert that cries wolf stops being read
Our own update scanner kept flagging a tool that was never behind. We fixed the check instead of muting it, and you can do the same.
PHP2Shell isn't a WordPress bug. Your WordPress site still runs the thing that broke.
The defenders are right: it is a PHP bug, and WordPress builds its pages with PHP. What to ask your host this week, and why a site that only gets leads may not need a PHP server at all.
Run a pre-mortem before you commit to a plan
A pre-mortem is one question asked before you commit: assume the plan already failed, then write down every reason why. It takes one honest reviewer.
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