Linkage: Reformed Broker Josh Brown Edition

Today’s Linkage is dedicated to Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO and Reformed Broker blogger Josh Brown because he’s a critical mentor, and was instrumental in naming this linkfest for The Basis Point years ago. Here’s the back story.

I got to know Josh in 2010 as bloggers do by linking to/writing about each other. He was light years ahead of me and other financial bloggers on readability and stamina. Anyone can bust a few great pieces per month or even week, but it takes a special kind to push legit posts daily for years.

We stayed in touch and Josh came out to San Francisco for client meetings April 11, 2011. We did a big happy hour that night at The Owl Tree, and I told him I was naming my linkfest Linkage, which was the nickname Pauly Shore called Brendan Fraser’s caveman character Link in Encino Man. The image was going to be Link in the computer lab. The whole branded linkfest concept was of course modeled after Josh’s Hot Links which was branded with an image of a link sausage character his wife designed.

“No. People won’t remember the reference,” Josh said with zero hesitation. “Name it Originations because it nods to a lending industry term and people should originate their day with links you’ve curated.”

And so it was done with the first Originations post two days later.

But it was always problematic because originations is indeed an ingrained lending term, and industry people didn’t get my intended use, so I’d say Originations Linkfest for clarity which was a mouthful and felt forced.

So in 2018, I finally replaced Originations with Linkage to be simple and descriptive. That’s why I always loved Josh’s Hot Links. Short name, says what it is. It’s taken me this long because that’s how much I trust Josh’s judgment. He understands media cold.

But Josh, you’ll be glad to know Linkage is no longer a stone-age pop culture reference—it’s just a short name that says what it is, and has a self-explanatory image.

Because Josh is light years ahead, he retired his Hot Links last year so he could focus more on writing and video than curating. But I’ve immortalized his Hot Links in museum fashion below, and The Basis Point will keep carrying the custom curation torch.

That said, today’s Linkage curates a handful of Josh’s deep cuts to school us on the blogging game and display his badass writing. Required reading.

Cheers Josh. I would not be where I am without your and Barry’s mentorship. You guys along with Kris, Michael, Bill, Tadas, and the team continue to inspire and show me the way, and I’m grateful for that.