OP #295: Three Reads for Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a whirlwind since my last Operating Partner letter hit your inbox! These past four weeks have absolutely flown by, but in the best possible way.

Yesterday marked our 18th Annual Silicon Alley Sports event (finally happening after that weather reschedule from May 5th), and wow, was it something special! I'm still waiting on the professional shots, but I promise to share them the moment they land in my inbox. And heads up—tennis event announcement coming soon! Make sure you're on the list for all SAS happenings by filling out this quick form.

🏀 Knicks vs. Pacers: The Rivalry Reignites

As I write this, we're on the eve of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Knicks and Pacers. If you'd asked me about our playoff journey a few weeks back, I would've predicted a 4-1 or 4-2 loss to the Celtics. But that's exactly why I'm just a passionate fan and not getting paid for my NBA analysis! I did go to a Celtics vs. Knicks game with my son and that was a real treat.

Those 1990s Knicks-Pacers battles are seared into my memory, and we've got some serious redeeming to do... I'm cautiously optimistic we can pull off a 4-2 series win and send Reggie Miller packing. Seriously, if I have to endure another "choke" meme, I might lose it...

📚 Three Reads That Stopped Me in My Tracks

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to share a few articles that caused me to (positively) think…

1/ How to Get Cited by AI: SEO Insights from 8000 AI Citations (Search Engine Land)
If you've been following the OP for a while, you know I'm fascinated by how search is evolving in our AI-driven world. Organic traffic is trending down, zero-click searches are skyrocketing, and platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming major traffic drivers. The million-dollar question: what makes an LLM choose to recommend your content, and how can you influence that decision? This piece unpacks it nicely.

2/ No, really, everything becomes BI (Benn)
Fair warning: this one's a scorcher that demands a second read. It dives deep into the modern workplace and management ecosystem—slightly insider baseball, but it'll have you questioning where we're all heading.

3/ The Agentic Web and Original Sin (Stratechery)
Ben Thompson delivers again with an analysis we will be referencing for years to come. He maps out how the Internet fundamentally transforms in an agentic web environment, launching us into territory we've barely begun to imagine. My take? Tomorrow's digital landscape will be unrecognizable compared to today's.

The first piece is practical gold; the other two are brain food that'll spark some serious thinking.

I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and I look forward to continuing the OP’s on the other side.

Be well, do good.
Darren