OP #316: What You Clicked On in 2025

A fun look back at the top OP links and stories that you engaged most with in 2025.

Author

Darren Herman
January 06, 2026

Here we go! For most of us, the clock on Q1 has started and we’re off to the races. Before we get into that content, how was your holiday season? A few years ago, we made the decision to go away at Thanksgiving and it’s created an elongated holiday season which we like.

We spent a bit of time down in Westchester County, NY visiting family and the remaining time back in the Boston area. I definitely clocked some gym time, made it back on the tennis courts for the first time in a while, watched the Knicks, and recharged for the big 2026 ahead.

I hope your holiday season was good as well. FWIW, both Sherri and I commented that it felt like people put more effort into Halloween up by us than they did for Hannukah/Christmas/etc. We also noticed this on TV and radio. I am not sure if you felt the same way.

We’re starting to ramp up Silicon Alley Sports planning with a potential padel event in March, our flagship golf/pickle/shmoozer in May, and tennis in July/August. Official invitations have not gone out yet for these but if these may be of interest, please make sure your name is on our list. More on this soon.

A few articles to get us ready:

Be well, do good.
Darren

What You Actually Clicked in 2025 (And What That Says About Where We’re Headed)

Every December, I do the same quiet exercise. I pull up the OP analytics and ask a very unglamorous question:

What did people actually click?

Not what performed well on LinkedIn.
Not what sounded smart in a group Slack.
Not what I wanted people to read.

Just… what operators chose to spend their time on.

And when you stack those links next to each other, a pretty clear pattern shows up.

Less theory.
Less futurism cosplay.
More “help me understand what’s changing so I don’t screw this up.”

The number one OP by engagement was the Three Tech Trends That Keep Me Up at Night and not far behind, was this piece about me getting my start. I’ll rehash this piece soon.

Here are the ten most-clicked links of 2025—and why I think they landed.

1. Search Is Being Rewritten in Real Time

Search Engine Land

This was the runaway #1.

Every boardroom conversation eventually drifts here: If answers live inside AI, what happens to demand capture? To discovery? To the entire SEO playbook we’ve been funding for nearly three decades?

This piece stated the obvious truth plainly: the old rules are already gone.

Why it mattered: Marketing leaders are being forced to rethink discovery from first principles, not channel tweaks.

As a follow-up, I listened to this YT video while walking the dogs through the preserve recently. It’s by Neil Patel titled, 8 Trends I’m Betting My Entire Marketing Strategy On in 2026. I thought it was pretty good.

2. The $2000 Rule

Ritz Carlton

I think we all liked this one because it had nothing to do with technology.

Why it mattered: See above.

3. AI Isn’t a Tool — It’s an Operating Decision

Ben

This essay showed up in more internal Slack threads than anything else this year.

Because it reframed the question. Not “how do we test AI?” but “what changes when AI becomes infrastructure?”

That’s a very different conversation. And a much scarier one.

Why it mattered: The shift from AI experiments to redesigning how work actually gets done is underway.

4. The Year Analog Fought Back

Ink + Volt

In a year dominated by automation, one of the most-clicked links was… a paper planner.

Which says more than we probably want to admit.

This wasn’t about stationery. It was about attention. Control. The feeling that not everything has to live online.

Why it mattered: High-performing operators are optimizing how and where they think, not just what they deploy.

5. Strategy Still Wins When It’s Clear

Stratechery

Strategy never spikes because it’s trendy.

It spikes because it explains what’s actually happening—cleanly, calmly, without performance.

This was one of those pieces people forwarded internally after reading. That’s the real signal.

Why it mattered: In a market flooded with takes, clarity still compounds.

6. My Backpack

Nomatic

Y’all really liked my backpack. Did any of you buy one?

Why it mattered: I started using this in 2025 and really enjoy it. It comes with me to work everyday and all of my trips.

7. AI Isn’t Just Changing Marketing

Rishad

This piece widened the aperture.

It wasn’t about ads or content. It was about pricing, labor, risk, and trust—how AI quietly reshapes systems before organizations realize what’s happening.

That resonated.

Why it mattered: AI is becoming a general-purpose business force, not a department-level tool.

8. Tools That Survive Real Work

Ben’s Bites

A simple list of tools someone actually uses every day outperformed a lot of glossy trend pieces.

Which tells you everything.

Why it mattered: Operators don’t want more tools. They want fewer that actually hold up under pressure.

9. When Pricing Illusions Break

Jalopnik

On the surface, this was about used cars.

In reality, it was about transparency destroying old pricing assumptions—and how fast markets reprice when information advantages disappear.

You can map that dynamic directly onto marketing.

Why it mattered: Information asymmetry is collapsing. And business models are adjusting in real time.

What I’m Taking Into 2026

If there’s a throughline here, it’s simple:

People clicked things that helped them operate better.

Less hype.
Less abstraction.
More clarity about what’s actually changing and what to do next.

I promise to not turn the OP into self help or DIY books. With that said, looking back on previous years, the engagement is consistent. I guess this is why Medium is so popular with all of the similar content.

Regardless, thank you all for engaging. Lets rock 2026 together.

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