The Layoff Beard

Extended Thought ▪ And The “Job” Begins

By Matt Sussman | Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

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That was one hell of a summer vacation. It’s probably the last one of my life. And with the temperature dropping to nipple-hardening levels, football on the weekends, and miniature golf becoming more and more impractical to play this time of year, it’s fitting that I also have some “kind” of a job. It’s not technically full time, but for the next month or so will seem like it.

Technorati, which bought my second home Blogcritics last year, is going through a rather ginormous redesign very shortly, and one of their changes will be the introduction of their own writers. Their bright idea was to put me in charge of all those writers and editors, and calling the position an “executive editor.”

To date it’s probably the most responsibility I’ve ever had on the Internet, which is incredibly thrilling and terrifying to everyone. Remember when I was ruining the ability to comment on Deadspin by embedding Tetris games? Seems like just yesterday. But today they’d probably frown upon those kind of shenanigans.

So that’s what’s been occupying my non-Law & Order rerun time during the last month. It’s been a lot of policy drafting, editor hiring, writer recruiting, and fingernail biting. How will this redesign go? Aw, who the hell knows.

It’s quite amazing how much this gig feels a lot like my old job, in that I’m answering questions above my pay grade, troubleshooting technical issues, and trying to get folks on the same page in a small window of time. But at least I’m sleeping in my own bed, rather than in a room a thousand miles away in a town where fine dining is the Applebee’s at the edge of town.

So I hope you like what you see. (More accurately, I hope you can see it.) For the most part you’ll see a lot of work done by people with more programming knowledge than myself. And after that, you’ll witness the masterpieces of hundreds of bloggers and eight very special editors. And after that, you’ll see me, taking all the credit.

So maybe The Layoff Beard shall never die, as once promised. Perhaps I shall check back in occasionally, in the hopes that I shall always keep a state of mind as if I’m still on summer vacation. Or maybe I will finally be productive wearing sweatpants.