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  5. >
  6. <title type="text">Matt Mullenweg</title>
  7. <subtitle type="text">Unlucky in Cards</subtitle>
  8.  
  9. <updated>2025-05-06T16:27:46Z</updated>
  10.  
  11. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt" />
  12. <id>https://ma.tt/feed/atom/</id>
  13. <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/feed/atom/" />
  14.  
  15. <generator uri="https://wordpress.org/" version="6.9-alpha-60227">WordPress</generator>
  16. <icon>https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/01/cropped-matt-favicon.png?fit=32%2C32&#038;quality=80&#038;ssl=1</icon>
  17. <entry>
  18. <author>
  19. <name>Matt</name>
  20. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  21. </author>
  22.  
  23. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Remember Gravatar?]]></title>
  24. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/remember-gravatar/" />
  25.  
  26. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=142243</id>
  27. <updated>2025-05-06T16:27:46Z</updated>
  28. <published>2025-05-06T16:27:46Z</published>
  29. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Automattic" />
  30. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Gravatar has always been about giving people control over their identity online. One avatar, one profile, synced across the web, verified connections, with a fully open API. Gravatar is a true open identity layer for the internet, and now for AI.&#160; For developers, we’ve rolled out mobile SDKs and a revamped REST API that lets &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/remember-gravatar/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Remember Gravatar?</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  31.  
  32. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/05/remember-gravatar/"><![CDATA[
  33. <p>Gravatar has always been about giving people control over their identity online. One avatar, one profile, synced across the web, verified connections, with a fully open API.</p>
  34.  
  35.  
  36.  
  37. <p>Gravatar is a true open identity layer for the internet, <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2025/05/06/build-your-ai-identity-with-gravatars-new-tool/">and now for AI</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  38.  
  39.  
  40.  
  41. <p>For <a href="https://docs.gravatar.com/">developers</a>, we’ve rolled out mobile SDKs and a revamped REST API that lets you fetch avatars and profile data with just an email hash. Whether you&#8217;re building a blog, a community, or an AI agent that needs to understand who it&#8217;s talking to, Gravatar provides the infrastructure to make identity seamless and user-centric. </p>
  42.  
  43.  
  44.  
  45. <p>It’s free, open, and built with developers in mind. We believe identity should belong to the individual, not be locked behind proprietary platforms. Gravatar is our contribution to that vision.​</p>
  46.  
  47.  
  48.  
  49. <p>If you haven’t checked it out lately, now’s a great time to explore what <a href="https://gravatar.com">Gravatar</a> can do for your app or your online presence. And think about how your apps can drive more Gravatar signups.</p>
  50. ]]></content>
  52. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/remember-gravatar/#comments" thr:count="4" />
  53. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/remember-gravatar/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" />
  54. <thr:total>4</thr:total>
  55. </entry>
  56. <entry>
  57. <author>
  58. <name>Matt</name>
  59. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  60. </author>
  61.  
  62. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Berkshire Hathaway Meeting]]></title>
  63. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/berkshire/" />
  64.  
  65. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=141784</id>
  66. <updated>2025-05-03T23:43:59Z</updated>
  67. <published>2025-05-02T21:56:07Z</published>
  68. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Automattic" />
  69. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve checked off a bucket list item: I&#8217;m attending a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. It&#8217;s really an event! Thousands flock to Omaha, Nebraska, for the legendary Q&#38;A sessions with Warren Buffett and shareholder deals. They&#8217;ve made it quite the circus, with every Berkshire Hathaway company having a booth of some sort, and typically selling their &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/berkshire/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Berkshire Hathaway Meeting</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  70.  
  71. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/05/berkshire/"><![CDATA[
  72. <p>I&#8217;ve checked off a bucket list item: I&#8217;m attending a <a href="https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/">Berkshire Hathaway</a> shareholder meeting. It&#8217;s really an event! Thousands flock to Omaha, Nebraska, for the legendary Q&amp;A sessions with Warren Buffett and shareholder deals. They&#8217;ve made it quite the circus, with every Berkshire Hathaway company having a booth of some sort, and typically selling their goods at a discount or with exclusive items you can only buy there, like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Squishmallows (which of course I got, to complement my <a href="https://www.berkshirenerds.store/">bronze busts</a>).</p>
  73.  
  74.  
  75.  
  76. <p>It&#8217;s strange to have a Dairy Queen booth selling $1 ice cream (cash only!) next to NetJets, but those juxtapositions are part of the Berkshire vibe—it&#8217;s very high/low, like Costco (a big Berkshire holding). There&#8217;s also an element of WordCamps or a Salesforce Trailblazer event in that you can tell there&#8217;s a &#8220;type&#8221; of person that&#8217;s easy to spot who&#8217;s a Berkshire enthusiast. A lot of Berkshire brands are also WordPress users: Duracell, GEICO, Acme Brick, Berxi, MiTek. I think there is a lot of mimetic overlap between the values of open source and the values of building a Berkshire company.</p>
  77.  
  78.  
  79.  
  80. <p>As with any big gathering, the side events are also great, and I was honored to have a fireside chat with a friend and Buffett protégé, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Britt_Cool">Tracy Britt Cool</a>. To an audience of about 60+ CEOs in the <a href="https://kanbrick.com/">Kanbrick</a> community, we talked about Automattic&#8217;s history and some of the latest happenings in tech; AI was definitely on people&#8217;s minds in the Q&amp;A. They had questions for me, but I also feel like I have a ton to learn from this group that has built founder or family-owned businesses with an average of 80-100M of revenue, the kind of thing that is the engine of the American economy. </p>
  81.  
  82.  
  83.  
  84. <p>It makes me pine for the day when we can have more shareholders in Automattic; I think it would be an amazing cohort of folks that believe in open source and the open web, invested together and learning from each other, and I could imagine an event very much like these shareholder meetings. It&#8217;s so much more powerful when you build a business where your customers are also a community.</p>
  85.  
  86.  
  87.  
  88. <p><strong>Update:</strong> I knew this would be a special one because it was Warren&#8217;s 60th, but he really went above and beyond by announcing his intention for Greg Abel to take over as CEO at the end of the year. The standing ovation was a special moment, 60 years of 19.9% compounding returns! I think the future of Berkshire is very bright because he&#8217;s shared so much of his worldview that there are others that have made it their own.</p>
  89. ]]></content>
  91. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/berkshire/#comments" thr:count="2" />
  92. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/berkshire/feed/atom/" thr:count="2" />
  93. <thr:total>2</thr:total>
  94. </entry>
  95. <entry>
  96. <author>
  97. <name>Matt</name>
  98. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  99. </author>
  100.  
  101. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Reflecting]]></title>
  102. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/reflecting/" />
  103.  
  104. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=141539</id>
  105. <updated>2025-04-24T03:30:40Z</updated>
  106. <published>2025-04-24T03:30:40Z</published>
  107. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Personal" /><category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="WordPress" />
  108. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I know there’s been a lot of frustration directed at me specifically. Some of it, I believe, is misplaced—but I also understand where it’s coming from. The passing of Pope Francis has deeply impacted me. While I still disagree with the Church on many issues, he was the Pope who broke the mold in so &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/reflecting/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Reflecting</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  109.  
  110. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/04/reflecting/"><![CDATA[
  111. <p>I know there’s been a lot of frustration directed at me specifically. Some of it, I believe, is misplaced—but I also understand where it’s coming from.</p>
  112.  
  113.  
  114.  
  115. <p>The passing of Pope Francis has deeply impacted me. While I still disagree with the Church on many issues, he was the Pope who broke the mold in so many ways, inspiring me and drawing me back to the Catholic faith I grew up with, with an emphasis on service, compassion, and humility. His passing on Easter Monday, a holiday about rebirth, feels historic. Moments like that invite reflection—not just on personal choices, but on the broader systems we’re a part of.</p>
  116.  
  117.  
  118.  
  119. <p>My life, which was primarily about generative creative work that was free for everyone to use, has been subsumed by legal battles. From the start, I’ve said this: after many rounds of negotiation that I approached in good faith, WPE chose to sue. In hindsight, those conversations weren’t held in the same spirit, and that’s unfortunate.</p>
  120.  
  121.  
  122.  
  123. <p>But we can’t rewrite the past. What we can do is decide how we move forward.</p>
  124.  
  125.  
  126.  
  127. <p>The maker-taker problem, at the heart of what we’ve been wrestling with, doesn’t disappear by avoiding it. If we’re serious about contributing to the future of open source, and about preserving the legacy of what we’ve built together, we need space to reset. That can’t happen under the weight of ongoing litigation. The cards are in WPE hands, a fight they&#8217;ve started and refuse to end.</p>
  128.  
  129.  
  130.  
  131. <p>So I’m asking for a moment of reflection for us all as stewards of a shared ecosystem. Let’s not lose sight of that.</p>
  132. ]]></content>
  134. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/reflecting/#comments" thr:count="27" />
  135. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/reflecting/feed/atom/" thr:count="27" />
  136. <thr:total>27</thr:total>
  137. </entry>
  138. <entry>
  139. <author>
  140. <name>Matt</name>
  141. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  142. </author>
  143.  
  144. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Greatest Hits]]></title>
  145. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/greatest-hits/" />
  146.  
  147. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=141409</id>
  148. <updated>2025-04-20T06:26:52Z</updated>
  149. <published>2025-04-19T23:56:17Z</published>
  150. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Meta" />
  151. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been blogging now for approximately 8,465 days since my first post on Movable Type. My colleague Dan Luu helped me compile some of the &#8220;greatest hits&#8221; from the archives of ma.tt, perhaps some posts will stir some memories for you as well: Where Did WordCamps Come From? (2023) A look back at how Foo &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/greatest-hits/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Greatest Hits</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  152.  
  153. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/04/greatest-hits/"><![CDATA[
  154. <p>I&#8217;ve been blogging now for approximately 8,465 days since my first post on Movable Type. My colleague <a href="https://danluu.com/">Dan Luu</a> helped me compile some of the &#8220;greatest hits&#8221; from the archives of ma.tt, perhaps some posts will stir some memories for you as well:</p>
  155.  
  156.  
  157.  
  158. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2023/08/i-love-wordcamps/"><strong>Where Did WordCamps Come From? (2023)</strong></a></p>
  159.  
  160.  
  161.  
  162. <p>A look back at how Foo Camp and Bar Camp inspired WordCamps.</p>
  163.  
  164.  
  165.  
  166. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2018/09/ceos-and-the-real-world/"><strong>Getting Real Feedback as a CEO (2018)</strong></a></p>
  167.  
  168.  
  169.  
  170. <p>How do you make sure you get good information when you’re CEO? Something we’ve been trying that’s been working is having an anonymous internal forum. Like Blind, but internal to the company, and really anonymous, without anything linking a user ID to a comment.</p>
  171.  
  172.  
  173.  
  174. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-gpl/"><strong>Wix and the GPL (2016)</strong></a></p>
  175.  
  176.  
  177.  
  178. <p>That time Wix built their closed-source mobile app on GPL code.</p>
  179.  
  180.  
  181.  
  182. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2015/02/left-my-heart-in/"><strong>What I Miss and Don’t Miss About San Francisco (2015)</strong></a></p>
  183.  
  184.  
  185.  
  186. <p>Self explanatory <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
  187.  
  188.  
  189.  
  190. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2015/02/advice-and-fallacies/"><strong>Advice About Advice (2015)</strong></a></p>
  191.  
  192.  
  193.  
  194. <p>Why you need to think things through from first principles and not just blindly follow advice.</p>
  195.  
  196.  
  197.  
  198. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2014/04/the-web-matters/"><strong>Why the Web Still Matters (2014)</strong></a></p>
  199.  
  200.  
  201.  
  202. <p>A guest post by Ben Thompson of <a href="https://stratechery.com/">Stratechery</a> on why “the web is dead” comments were wrong in 2014. Still true today!</p>
  203.  
  204.  
  205.  
  206. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2014/01/four-freedoms/"><strong>The Four Freedoms (2014)</strong></a></p>
  207.  
  208.  
  209.  
  210. <p>A discussion of Stallman’s four open source freedoms. Our open source Bill of Rights, if you will.</p>
  211.  
  212.  
  213.  
  214. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2014/01/intrinsic-blogging/"><strong>The Intrinsic Value of Blogging (2014)</strong></a></p>
  215.  
  216.  
  217.  
  218. <p>On ignoring vanity metrics and blogging for intrinsic reasons</p>
  219.  
  220.  
  221.  
  222. <p><strong>What’s in My Bag </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2015/01/whats-in-my-bag-2014/"><strong>2014</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2016/03/whats-in-my-bag-2016-edition/"><strong>2016</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2017/05/whats-in-my-bag-2017/"><strong>2017</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2018/10/whats-in-my-bag-2018-edition/"><strong>2018</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2021/01/whats-in-my-bag-2020/"><strong>2020</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2023/12/the-bag-post/"><strong>2023</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/2025-bag/"><strong>2025</strong></a></p>
  223.  
  224.  
  225.  
  226. <p>What I’ve been carrying in my travel bag&nbsp;</p>
  227.  
  228.  
  229.  
  230. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2011/09/automattic-creed/"><strong>Why Your Company Should Have a Creed (2011)</strong></a></p>
  231.  
  232.  
  233.  
  234. <p>I&#8217;m really jazzed that dozens of companies have adopted this or similar ideas since then.</p>
  235.  
  236.  
  237.  
  238. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2010/11/one-point-oh/"><strong>1.0 is the Loneliest Number (2010)</strong></a></p>
  239.  
  240.  
  241.  
  242. <p>On the importance of releasing quickly and getting feedback.</p>
  243.  
  244.  
  245.  
  246. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2010/05/twitter-api/"><strong>The Twitter API (2010)</strong></a></p>
  247.  
  248.  
  249.  
  250. <p>A discussion on the Twitter API missing the boat on, as Jack Dorsey put it, becoming a protocol.</p>
  251.  
  252.  
  253.  
  254. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2010/02/i-miss-school/"><strong>I Miss School (2010)</strong></a></p>
  255.  
  256.  
  257.  
  258. <p>Just like they say, youth is wasted on the young, I think I squandered school when I was in it.</p>
  259.  
  260.  
  261.  
  262. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2009/08/starting-a-bank/"><strong>What Startup Idea Would I suggest? Start a Bank (2009)</strong></a></p>
  263.  
  264.  
  265.  
  266. <p>There’s been a lot of action in the payments space since 2009. For new companies, we have Square (2009), Stripe (2010), and Wealthsimple (2014), among others. Ally Bank (rebranded from GMAC in 2010) has also been trying to provide a modern customer-focused experience.</p>
  267.  
  268.  
  269.  
  270. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2009/08/kill-your-community/"><strong>Six Steps to Kill Your Community (2009)</strong></a></p>
  271.  
  272.  
  273.  
  274. <p>Platform and product anti-patterns.</p>
  275.  
  276.  
  277.  
  278. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2009/07/not-lonely-at-all/"><strong>In Defense of the GPL for Open Source Projects (2009)</strong></a></p>
  279.  
  280.  
  281.  
  282. <p>This was a response to a popular post about how GPL open source projects would lose out to projects under licenses like MIT, BSD, and Apache. I didn’t agree then and I don’t agree now.&nbsp;</p>
  283.  
  284.  
  285.  
  286. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2009/06/the-way-i-work-annotated/"><strong>The Way I Work (2009)</strong></a></p>
  287.  
  288.  
  289.  
  290. <p>Self explanatory <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
  291.  
  292.  
  293.  
  294. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2008/05/infrastructure-as-competitive-advantage/"><strong>Infrastructure as Competitive Advantage (2008)</strong></a></p>
  295.  
  296.  
  297.  
  298. <p>On the importance of performance, reliability, and security. This was a core priority for us and it shows. <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We dominate the competition on third-party performance comparisons&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/danluu/status/1890232671084900643" target="_blank">at the platform level</a>&nbsp;and on&nbsp;<a href="https://danluu.com/slow-device/" target="_blank">the default user experience,</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/real-wordpress-security/" target="_blank">our security is top-notch</a>.</span></p>
  299.  
  300.  
  301.  
  302. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2007/07/price-of-freedom/"><strong>The Price of Freedom and Open Source Licenses (2007)</strong><strong><br /></strong><strong><br /></strong></a>A response to a user who wanted the ability to remove GPL freedoms from WordPress.</p>
  303.  
  304.  
  305.  
  306. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2007/07/on-php/"><strong>The PHP5 Transition (2007)</strong></a></p>
  307.  
  308.  
  309.  
  310. <p>How PHP5 forced us to divert time and attention away from users to deal with migration costs.</p>
  311.  
  312.  
  313.  
  314. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2007/03/kapor-vs-zuckerberg/"><strong>Mitch Kapor vs. Mark Zuckerberg (2007)</strong></a></p>
  315.  
  316.  
  317.  
  318. <p>At Startup School, Kapor advocated for having team diversity while Zuckerberg advocated for a “young and technical” because the best work comes from young people. Now that Facebook (Meta) has grown up, Zuckerberg is doing what Kapor said companies should do and not what Zuckerberg said companies should do! Zuckerberg’s trusted people aren’t young anymore and aren’t being replaced by the young.</p>
  319.  
  320.  
  321.  
  322. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2007/01/relevant-sun/"><strong>Sun Isn’t Relevant to Startups (2007)</strong></a><strong>, and </strong><a href="https://ma.tt/2007/01/sun-followup/"><strong>Followup (2007)</strong></a></p>
  323.  
  324.  
  325.  
  326. <p>A discussion of Sun’s Startup Essentials program and Jonathan Schwartz&#8217;s (then CEO of Sun) reply.</p>
  327.  
  328.  
  329.  
  330. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2006/04/feed-validator/"><strong>The RSS Feed Validator is Dead to Me (2006)</strong></a></p>
  331.  
  332.  
  333.  
  334. <p>The RSS 2.0 feed validator is old news today but the experience here is a good example of why people didn’t take any of these validators seriously and they’re all old news</p>
  335.  
  336.  
  337.  
  338. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2006/03/hours-and-work/"><strong>There’s No Correlation Between Hours Worked and Work Done (2006)</strong></a></p>
  339.  
  340.  
  341.  
  342. <p>Self explanatory <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
  343.  
  344.  
  345.  
  346. <p><a href="https://ma.tt/2005/11/hidden-costs/"><strong>Should We Have Hidden Options? (2005)</strong></a></p>
  347.  
  348.  
  349.  
  350. <p>A discussion of the hidden cost of hidden options.</p>
  351.  
  352.  
  353.  
  354. <p>We probably missed some, if there’s a post you think should be included leave it in the comments.</p>
  355. ]]></content>
  357. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/greatest-hits/#comments" thr:count="4" />
  358. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/greatest-hits/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" />
  359. <thr:total>4</thr:total>
  360. </entry>
  361. <entry>
  362. <author>
  363. <name>Matt</name>
  364. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  365. </author>
  366.  
  367. <title type="html"><![CDATA[6.8]]></title>
  368. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/cecil/" />
  369.  
  370. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=141353</id>
  371. <updated>2025-04-17T09:19:36Z</updated>
  372. <published>2025-04-17T09:19:36Z</published>
  373. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="WordPress" />
  374. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[WordPress 6.8 Cecil is out, and it&#8217;s a great release. It&#8217;s unbelievable that it&#8217;s already been downloaded over 6 million times as I write this. That feeling never gets old. It&#8217;s a funny time in WordPress because there are a lot of really interesting open questions: Some of these broad changes are mixed. At one &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/cecil/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">6.8</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  375.  
  376. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/04/cecil/"><![CDATA[
  377. <p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2025/04/cecil/">WordPress 6.8 Cecil is out</a>, and it&#8217;s a great release. It&#8217;s unbelievable that it&#8217;s already <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/counter/">been downloaded over 6 million times as I write this</a>. That feeling never gets old.</p>
  378.  
  379.  
  380.  
  381. <p>It&#8217;s a funny time in WordPress because there are a lot of  really interesting open questions:</p>
  382.  
  383.  
  384.  
  385. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  386. <li>Can we iterate faster with canonical plugins?</li>
  387.  
  388.  
  389.  
  390. <li>What&#8217;s the fun thing we can put in to celebrate 7.0, and when will that be? (I was rooting for real-time co-editing like Notion/Canva/Google Docs.)</li>
  391.  
  392.  
  393.  
  394. <li>How can we use AI to automate our manual work around WordPress.org?</li>
  395.  
  396.  
  397.  
  398. <li>Can AI help us make 60k+ open source plugins and themes in the directory more secure? (I think so.)</li>
  399.  
  400.  
  401.  
  402. <li>What should we do with our 13k issue backlog? (That&#8217;s a lot of bug gardening.)</li>
  403.  
  404.  
  405.  
  406. <li>How will AI change how people build and update sites?</li>
  407.  
  408.  
  409.  
  410. <li>Just like RSS and web standards supercharged WordPress for the podcasting and search revolutions, what standards or APIs can we ship to help 40%+ of the web work with AI agents? (Plus an entire rabbit hole of all the new sloppy crawlers using so many resources.)</li>
  411. </ul>
  412.  
  413.  
  414.  
  415. <p>Some of these broad changes are mixed. At one point, I used Google to search for things and would visit their top result, which is great for website owners. Nowadays, Google pulls almost everything I need into the results page, so I don&#8217;t see as many random sites. But on <a href="https://www.perplexity.ai/">Perplexity</a>, sometimes I&#8217;ll read the answer and then visit 4-5 of the sources it cites to learn more, so I&#8217;m visiting 4-5x more random websites, usually powered by WordPress, than I would have even in the early days of Google. We don&#8217;t know how this all plays out yet.</p>
  416.  
  417.  
  418.  
  419. <p>These questions are also against the backdrop of some of the brightest minds in WordPress spending more time with legal code than computer code, which could last until 2027 or longer with appeals. </p>
  420.  
  421.  
  422.  
  423. <p>Speaking for myself, I was in my first deposition today. I really appreciated the due process and decorum of the rule of law, and just like code, law has a million little quirks, global variables, loaded libraries, and esoteric terminology. But wow, after a full day of that, I&#8217;m mentally exhausted. Hence, I&#8217;m posting about 6.8 after it&#8217;s had 6 million downloads. I&#8217;m more impressed than ever by what smart lawyers do, and the entire thing, though sometimes imperfect and frustrating, is a blessing to our democracy. However, I can&#8217;t wait to return to spending the plurality of my days with engineers and designers again. I&#8217;m sure many other folks in the WordPress community would agree.</p>
  424. ]]></content>
  426. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/cecil/#comments" thr:count="10" />
  427. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/cecil/feed/atom/" thr:count="10" />
  428. <thr:total>10</thr:total>
  429. </entry>
  430. <entry>
  431. <author>
  432. <name>Matt</name>
  433. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  434. </author>
  435.  
  436. <title type="html"><![CDATA[AI Site Builder]]></title>
  437. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/ai-site-builder/" />
  438.  
  439. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=141197</id>
  440. <updated>2025-04-09T17:14:06Z</updated>
  441. <published>2025-04-09T17:14:06Z</published>
  442. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="WordPress.com" />
  443. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[The long-anticipated &#8220;Big Sky&#8221; AI site builder on WordPress.com went live today. It combines several models and can create logos, site designs, typography, color schemes, and content. It&#8217;s an entirely new way to interact with and edit a brand-new or existing WordPress site. This AI agent will make WordPress accessible to an entirely new generation &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/ai-site-builder/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">AI Site Builder</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  444.  
  445. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/04/ai-site-builder/"><![CDATA[
  446. <p>The long-anticipated <a href="https://wordpress.com/ai-website-builder/?ref=blog">&#8220;Big Sky&#8221; AI site builder on WordPress.com went live today</a>. It combines several models and can create logos, site designs, typography, color schemes, and content. It&#8217;s an entirely new way to interact with and edit a brand-new or existing WordPress site. This AI agent will make WordPress accessible to an entirely new generation and class of customers, and it will be a power tool for professionals to do things in minutes that used to take them hours.</p>
  447. ]]></content>
  449. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/ai-site-builder/#comments" thr:count="18" />
  450. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/04/ai-site-builder/feed/atom/" thr:count="18" />
  451. <thr:total>18</thr:total>
  452. </entry>
  453. <entry>
  454. <author>
  455. <name>Matt</name>
  456. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  457. </author>
  458.  
  459. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Automattic Operating System]]></title>
  460. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/aos/" />
  461.  
  462. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=140810</id>
  463. <updated>2025-03-21T22:15:05Z</updated>
  464. <published>2025-03-21T22:15:05Z</published>
  465. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Automattic" />
  466. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I was interviewed by Inc magazine for almost two hours where we covered a lot of great topics for entrepreneurs but almost none of it made it into the weird hit piece they published, however since both the journalist and I had recording of the interview I&#8217;ve decided to adapt some parts of it into &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/aos/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Automattic Operating System</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  467.  
  468. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/03/aos/"><![CDATA[
  469. <p><em>I was interviewed by Inc magazine for almost two hours where we covered a lot of great topics for entrepreneurs but almost none of it made it into the <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/">weird hit piece they published</a>, however since both the journalist and I had recording of the interview I&#8217;ve decided to adapt some parts of it into a series of blog posts, think of it as the Inc Article That Could Have Been. This bit talks about some of the meta-work that myself and the Bridge team at Automattic do.</em><br><br>At Automattic, the most important product I work on is the company itself. I&#8217;ve started referring to it as the &#8220;Automattic Operating System.&#8221; Not in the technical sense like Linux, but the meta layer the company runs on. The company isn&#8217;t WordPress.com or Beeper or Pocket Casts or any one thing. I&#8217;m responsible for the culture of the people who build those things, building the things that build those things. It&#8217;s our hiring, our HR processes, our expenses, the onboarding docs; it&#8217;s all of the details that make up the employee experience — all the stuff that shapes every employee&#8217;s day-to-day experience.</p>
  470.  
  471.  
  472.  
  473. <p>Take expense reports. If you&#8217;ve got to spend two hours taking pictures of receipts and something like that, that&#8217;s a waste of time. You&#8217;re not helping a customer there. We switched to a system where everyone just gets a credit card. It does all the reporting and accounting stuff automatically. You just swipe the card and it just automatically files an expense report. Sometimes there&#8217;s an exception and you have to work with the accounting rules, but it just works and automates the whole process most of the time.</p>
  474.  
  475.  
  476.  
  477. <p>Another commonly overlooked detail is the offer letter. We think so much about the design of our websites and our products. We have designers work on that and we put a lot of care and thought into it. But I realized we didn&#8217;t have the same attention to detail on our offer letter. When you think about it, getting an offer letter from a company and deciding to take it is a major life decision, something you only do a handful of times in your life.  This is one of the things that determines your life path. Our offer letter was just made by attorneys and HR. No designer had looked at it right. We hadn&#8217;t really thought about it from a product experience point of view. And so it was just this, generic document with bad typography and not great design. But it&#8217;s important, so one of the things we did was redesign it. Now it has a nice letterhead, great typography, and it&#8217;s designed for the end user.<br><br>I realized that the salary and stuff was buried in paragraph two. It was just a small thing in the document! Well, what&#8217;s key when you&#8217;re deciding whether to take a job? Start date, salary, you know, that sort of thing, so we put the important parts at the very top.</p>
  478.  
  479.  
  480.  
  481. <p>And then there&#8217;s the legal language. All the legal stuff, which is different in every country. We have people in 90 countries, so there&#8217;s all the legal stuff that goes in there. And then it has this nudge inspired by the behavioral economics book, Predictably Irrational.<br><br>There&#8217;s the story about how, if you have an ethics statement above where you sign the test or something, people cheat less. So I thought, well, what&#8217;s our equivalent of that? <a href="https://ma.tt/2011/09/automattic-creed/">We have the Automattic Creed</a>. It&#8217;s an important part of our culture. So we put the creed in, it says</p>
  482.  
  483.  
  484.  
  485. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  486. <p>I will never stop learning. I won’t just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there’s no such thing as a status quo. I will build our business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers. I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything. I am more motivated by impact than money, and I know that Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation. I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.</p>
  487. </blockquote>
  488.  
  489.  
  490.  
  491. <p>It&#8217;s not legally binding, but it&#8217;s written in the first person, you read it and you kind of identify with it and then you sign below that. We want people who work at the company who identify with our core values and our core values really are in the creed.</p>
  492.  
  493.  
  494.  
  495. <p>These sorts of things are key to our culture. And they&#8217;re universal. Again, we have people from over 90 countries. These are very different cultures, yes, and very different historical backgrounds and cultural makeups. But what&#8217;s universal? We have our philosophies that we apply every day regardless of where you were born or where you work.</p>
  496. ]]></content>
  498. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/aos/#comments" thr:count="7" />
  499. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/aos/feed/atom/" thr:count="7" />
  500. <thr:total>7</thr:total>
  501. </entry>
  502. <entry>
  503. <author>
  504. <name>Matt</name>
  505. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  506. </author>
  507.  
  508. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Radiohead]]></title>
  509. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/radiohead/" />
  510.  
  511. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=140773</id>
  512. <updated>2025-03-19T23:58:10Z</updated>
  513. <published>2025-03-19T23:06:02Z</published>
  514. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  515. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[It&#8217;s so funny that my random re-engagement with Radiohead re-emergence coincides with them doing a new entity that might mean something. I did a poll on Twitter and people preferred OK Computer to Kid A 78%! Grok told me: &#8220;The band has recently registered a new limited liability partnership (LLP) named RHEUK25, which includes all &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/radiohead/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Radiohead</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  516.  
  517. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/03/radiohead/"><![CDATA[
  518. <p>It&#8217;s so funny that my random re-engagement with Radiohead re-emergence coincides with them <a href="https://pitchfork.com/news/radiohead-members-form-new-llp-historically-a-telltale-sign-of-new-activity/">doing a new entity that might mean something</a>. I did a <a href="https://x.com/photomatt/status/1901705209040011357">poll on Twitter and people preferred</a> OK Computer to Kid A 78%! </p>
  519.  
  520.  
  521.  
  522. <p>Grok told me: &#8220;The band has recently registered a new limited liability partnership (LLP) named RHEUK25, which includes all five members—Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Philip Selway. This move is notable because Radiohead has historically created similar business entities before announcing new albums, tours, or reissues.&#8221;</p>
  523. ]]></content>
  525. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/radiohead/#comments" thr:count="0" />
  526. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/radiohead/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" />
  527. <thr:total>0</thr:total>
  528. </entry>
  529. <entry>
  530. <author>
  531. <name>Matt</name>
  532. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  533. </author>
  534.  
  535. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Dalio &#038; Benioff in Singapore]]></title>
  536. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/dalio-benioff/" />
  537.  
  538. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=140704</id>
  539. <updated>2025-03-17T01:55:49Z</updated>
  540. <published>2025-03-15T20:46:22Z</published>
  541. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  542. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[With the world changing so quickly, it&#8217;s hard to find alpha, but the best way is by following the brightest thinkers. This CNBC interview with Ray Dalio and Marc Benioff is good, but it&#8217;s way better if you go to the livestream about 25 minutes in and see the full discussion without the editing. You &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/dalio-benioff/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Dalio &#38; Benioff in Singapore</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  543.  
  544. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/03/dalio-benioff/"><![CDATA[
  545. <p>With the world changing so quickly, it&#8217;s hard to find alpha,  but the best way is by following the brightest thinkers. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5pF60yUfw0">This CNBC interview with Ray Dalio and Marc Benioff is good</a>, but it&#8217;s way better if you <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4XTvLZJFcA">go to the livestream about 25 minutes in and see the full discussion without the editing</a>. You hear what these great thinkers actually think, rather than what an editor thought you&#8217;d enjoy. A little bit of friction gets you a lot more information.</p>
  546. ]]></content>
  548. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/dalio-benioff/#comments" thr:count="0" />
  549. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/dalio-benioff/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" />
  550. <thr:total>0</thr:total>
  551. </entry>
  552. <entry>
  553. <author>
  554. <name>Matt</name>
  555. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  556. </author>
  557.  
  558. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Real WordPress Security]]></title>
  559. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/real-wordpress-security/" />
  560.  
  561. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=140118</id>
  562. <updated>2025-03-08T11:07:49Z</updated>
  563. <published>2025-03-08T11:07:49Z</published>
  564. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="WordPress" />
  565. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[One thing you&#8217;ll see on every host that offers WordPress is claims about how secure they are, however they don&#8217;t put their money where their mouth is. When you dig deeper, if your site actually gets hacked they&#8217;ll hit you with remediation fees that can go from hundreds to thousands of dollars. They may try &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/real-wordpress-security/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Real WordPress Security</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  566.  
  567. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/03/real-wordpress-security/"><![CDATA[
  568. <p>One thing you&#8217;ll see on every host that offers WordPress is claims about how secure they are, however they don&#8217;t put their money where their mouth is. When you dig deeper, if your site actually gets hacked they&#8217;ll hit you with remediation fees that can go from hundreds to thousands of dollars.</p>
  569.  
  570.  
  571.  
  572. <p>They may try to sell you a security plan that <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/web-security/website-security">for example at Godaddy goes from $300 to $700 a year on top of your hosting</a>. (Don&#8217;t be fooled by the low entry price, look at renewal.) It&#8217;s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/webhosting/comments/16yqtsj/my_websites_has_been_hacked_malwares_has_been/">heartbreaking to hear stories</a> of non-technical people forced into these high fees to fix something their host should have prevented in the first place.</p>
  573.  
  574.  
  575.  
  576. <p>When a host is powered by <a href="https://wp.cloud/">WP.cloud</a>, it doesn&#8217;t need to do this because hacks are so incredibly rare. (That&#8217;s why it may appear more expensive, but the total cost of ownership or being a WP.cloud-powered host is much lower when you factor in human time.)</p>
  577.  
  578.  
  579.  
  580. <p>One problem we&#8217;ve had on <a href="https://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com</a> is we do all these amazing things and don&#8217;t tell anyone about it, something we&#8217;re trying to change with our focus this year on developers and developer tooling. One great example is <strong>we&#8217;re so confident about our security, if your site gets hacked we&#8217;ll fix it for free! </strong>We&#8217;ve actually been doing this for the better part of a decade, just never mentioned it anywhere.</p>
  581.  
  582.  
  583.  
  584. <p><a href="https://pressable.com/">Pressable</a> (which is WP.cloud-powered) does a better job talking about these things and <a href="https://pressable.com/features/manage/wordpress-hack-recovery-assistance/">has a nice landing page on malware cleaning and hack recovery</a> that says essentially the same thing.</p>
  585.  
  586.  
  587.  
  588. <p>WordPress has done a ton over the years to move the hosting industry around upgrading PHP and MySQL, PHP extensions, free SSL, and in general using our clout to advocate for user rights and freedoms from even the largest hosting companies, and I&#8217;m proud to say there are a good number, for example the ones you see at WordCamps, that have not just embraced these values but actually been more commercially successful as they&#8217;ve done so. I hope security and auto-upgrades not just for core but for plugins and themes becomes the next standard. (<a href="https://jetpack.com/features/security/automatic-plugin-updates/">Jetpack does this</a> for free, <a href="https://cloudup.com/cdrjMTE6nfa">some hosts charge $100/yr per site</a>.)</p>
  589. ]]></content>
  591. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/real-wordpress-security/#comments" thr:count="9" />
  592. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/real-wordpress-security/feed/atom/" thr:count="9" />
  593. <thr:total>9</thr:total>
  594. </entry>
  595. <entry>
  596. <author>
  597. <name>Matt</name>
  598. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  599. </author>
  600.  
  601. <title type="html"><![CDATA[On Lenny&#8217;s Podcast]]></title>
  602. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/lennys-podcast/" />
  603.  
  604. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=139675</id>
  605. <updated>2025-03-04T19:55:55Z</updated>
  606. <published>2025-03-04T14:19:50Z</published>
  607. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Press" />
  608. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[One of my must-read newsletters for the past several years has been Lenny&#8217;s Newsletter, probably best known for its writing on growth and product management, which really means it covered everything you need to create a great company. It expanded into a really well-done podcast; Lenny has always had a knack for finding the best &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/lennys-podcast/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">On Lenny&#8217;s Podcast</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  609.  
  610. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/03/lennys-podcast/"><![CDATA[
  611. <p>One of my must-read newsletters for the past several years has been <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/">Lenny&#8217;s Newsletter</a>, probably best known for its writing on growth and product management, which really means it covered everything you need to create a great company. </p>
  612.  
  613.  
  614.  
  615. <p>It expanded into a really well-done podcast; Lenny has always had a knack for finding the best guests and asking the best questions, so when he invited me on I was very excited.</p>
  616.  
  617.  
  618.  
  619. <p>He really wanted to address some of the things that people said I wasn&#8217;t being asked, so we do touch on the WP Engine / Silver Lake attacks, but we also covered a lot of my philosophy of why open source is important, philanthropy, and why you should build a movement, not just a product.</p>
  620.  
  621.  
  622.  
  623. <figure class="wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  624. <iframe title="Matt Mullenweg on the future of open source and why he’s taking a stand" width="604" height="340" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fves5chVZRA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  625. </div></figure>
  626.  
  627.  
  628.  
  629. <p>You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fves5chVZRA">watch it on YouTube</a>, or <a href="https://pca.st/episode/ebb90f87-32fb-4a11-9f6e-30e51296d3fb">listen to it on your favorite podcast app like Pocket Casts</a>.</p>
  630.  
  631.  
  632.  
  633. <p>Some others he has done that I really enjoyed are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTr21kgCFF4">Nan Yu from Linear</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOGK1nlHdFo">Marc Benioff from Salesforce</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfEEcssu304">Katie Dill from Stripe</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDq6_CPaRjM">Mihika Kapoor from Figma</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egdYKLBswgk">Drew Houston from Dropbox</a>, and of course the famous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ef0juAMqoE">Founder Mode one with Brian Chesky</a>.</p>
  634. ]]></content>
  636. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/lennys-podcast/#comments" thr:count="2" />
  637. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/03/lennys-podcast/feed/atom/" thr:count="2" />
  638. <thr:total>2</thr:total>
  639. </entry>
  640. <entry>
  641. <author>
  642. <name>Matt</name>
  643. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  644. </author>
  645.  
  646. <title type="html"><![CDATA[WordCamp Asia and Maha Kumbh Mela]]></title>
  647. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/wcasia-kumbh/" />
  648.  
  649. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=138006</id>
  650. <updated>2025-02-22T06:02:39Z</updated>
  651. <published>2025-02-22T06:01:19Z</published>
  652. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  653. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[It&#8217;s been fantastic being in the Philippines for this year&#8217;s WordCamp Asia. We have attendees from 71 countries, over 1,800 tickets sold, and contributor day had over 700 people! It&#8217;s an interesting contrast to US and EU WordCamps as well in that the audience is definitely a lot younger, and there&#8217;s very little interest in &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/wcasia-kumbh/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">WordCamp Asia and Maha Kumbh Mela</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  654.  
  655. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/02/wcasia-kumbh/"><![CDATA[
  656. <p>It&#8217;s been fantastic being in the Philippines for <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2025/">this year&#8217;s WordCamp Asia</a>. We have attendees from 71 countries, over 1,800 tickets sold, and contributor day had over 700 people! It&#8217;s an interesting contrast to US and EU WordCamps as well in that the audience is definitely a lot younger, and there&#8217;s very little interest in &#8220;wpdrama&#8221; du jour, in fact I&#8217;ve had tons of amazing conversations of support and talking about the strength and growth of the community.</p>
  657.  
  658.  
  659.  
  660. <p>Some of the earliest international WordCamps I went to were in Manila and Davao, back in 2008. (I&#8217;m going to share some pictures at the start of my talk.) Between that and spending lots of time in Daly City when I moved to San Francisco when I was 20 I have developed a fondness for the cuisine, creativity, family orientation, and warmth of the culture here.</p>
  661.  
  662.  
  663.  
  664. <p>After this I&#8217;ll be taking a bit of time off for a trip to the big Hindu religious pilgrimage in India, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela">Maha Kumbh Mela</a>, which is currently on a 144 cycle. It&#8217;s the largest human gathering in the world, with some days measured with tens of millions of people visiting. I&#8217;ll be returning to my Photomatt roots as well and bringing my big camera rig, right now a Nikon Z 7II, and two lenses: 24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8.</p>
  665. ]]></content>
  667. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/wcasia-kumbh/#comments" thr:count="8" />
  668. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/wcasia-kumbh/feed/atom/" thr:count="8" />
  669. <thr:total>8</thr:total>
  670. </entry>
  671. <entry>
  672. <author>
  673. <name>Matt</name>
  674. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  675. </author>
  676.  
  677. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Sun and shadows]]></title>
  678. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/sun-and-shadows/" />
  679.  
  680. <id>https://ma.tt/2025/02/sun-and-shadows/</id>
  681. <updated>2025-02-18T01:06:58Z</updated>
  682. <published>2025-02-18T01:06:58Z</published>
  683. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  684. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[]]></summary>
  685.  
  686. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/02/sun-and-shadows/"><![CDATA[
  687. <figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="604" height="702" data-attachment-id="137931" data-permalink="https://ma.tt/image-10/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?fit=768%2C892&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="768,892" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="image" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?fit=637%2C740&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?fit=604%2C702&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?resize=604%2C702&#038;quality=89&#038;ssl=1" class="wp-image-137931" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?w=768&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?resize=637%2C740&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 637w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?resize=181%2C210&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 181w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/02/image.jpg?resize=396%2C460&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 396w" sizes="(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px" /></figure>
  688. ]]></content>
  690. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/sun-and-shadows/#comments" thr:count="6" />
  691. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/sun-and-shadows/feed/atom/" thr:count="6" />
  692. <thr:total>6</thr:total>
  693. </entry>
  694. <entry>
  695. <author>
  696. <name>Matt</name>
  697. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  698. </author>
  699.  
  700. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Scale]]></title>
  701. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/scale/" />
  702.  
  703. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=137506</id>
  704. <updated>2025-02-14T00:40:05Z</updated>
  705. <published>2025-02-14T00:40:05Z</published>
  706. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  707. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[In high school when 5% of your class doesn&#8217;t like you it&#8217;s like 3-5 people. Running a company of 1,700+ when 5% doesn&#8217;t like you, that&#8217;s 85 people! That fills a room. 150k followers and 5% don&#8217;t like you now you have a small stadium of 7,500 people. It&#8217;s still 5%.]]></summary>
  708.  
  709. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/02/scale/"><![CDATA[
  710. <p>In high school when 5% of your class doesn&#8217;t like you it&#8217;s like 3-5 people. </p>
  711.  
  712.  
  713.  
  714. <p>Running a company of 1,700+ when 5% doesn&#8217;t like you, that&#8217;s 85 people! That fills a room. </p>
  715.  
  716.  
  717.  
  718. <p>150k followers and 5% don&#8217;t like you now you have a small stadium of 7,500 people. </p>
  719.  
  720.  
  721.  
  722. <p>It&#8217;s still 5%.</p>
  723. ]]></content>
  725. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/scale/#comments" thr:count="5" />
  726. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/scale/feed/atom/" thr:count="5" />
  727. <thr:total>5</thr:total>
  728. </entry>
  729. <entry>
  730. <author>
  731. <name>Matt</name>
  732. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  733. </author>
  734.  
  735. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Hash tables]]></title>
  736. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/hash-tables/" />
  737.  
  738. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=137372</id>
  739. <updated>2025-02-12T22:03:25Z</updated>
  740. <published>2025-02-12T22:03:25Z</published>
  741. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  742. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[“You didn’t just come up with a cool hash table,” he remembers telling Krapivin. “You’ve actually completely wiped out a 40-year-old conjecture!” There&#8217;s a delightful article on an undergraduate discovering an optimization in a very basic computer science principle.]]></summary>
  743.  
  744. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/02/hash-tables/"><![CDATA[
  745. <p>“You didn’t just come up with a cool hash table,” he remembers telling Krapivin. “You’ve actually completely wiped out a 40-year-old conjecture!” <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/undergraduate-upends-a-40-year-old-data-science-conjecture-20250210/">There&#8217;s a delightful article on an undergraduate discovering an optimization in a very basic computer science principle</a>.</p>
  746. ]]></content>
  748. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/hash-tables/#comments" thr:count="0" />
  749. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/hash-tables/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" />
  750. <thr:total>0</thr:total>
  751. </entry>
  752. <entry>
  753. <author>
  754. <name>Matt</name>
  755. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  756. </author>
  757.  
  758. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Ed Catmull on Change]]></title>
  759. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/ed-catmull-on-change/" />
  760.  
  761. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=137101</id>
  762. <updated>2025-02-10T11:14:54Z</updated>
  763. <published>2025-02-10T05:38:10Z</published>
  764. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="WordPress" />
  765. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been really enjoying the book Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull of Pixar, it was recommended to me by my colleague Dave Martin a while back and I finally got around to it. There&#8217;s an interesting story in it where George Lucas had asked him to develop a film editing system that was digital. While &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/ed-catmull-on-change/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Ed Catmull on Change</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  766.  
  767. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/02/ed-catmull-on-change/"><![CDATA[
  768. <p>I&#8217;ve been really enjoying the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Overcoming-Unseen-Inspiration/dp/0812993012">Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull of Pixar</a>, it was recommended to me by my colleague <a href="https://davemart.in/">Dave Martin</a> a while back and I finally got around to it. There&#8217;s an interesting story in it where George Lucas had asked him to develop a film editing system that was digital.</p>
  769.  
  770.  
  771.  
  772. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  773. <p>While George wanted this new video-editing system in place, the film editors at Lucasfilm did not. They were perfectly happy with the system they had already mastered, which involved actually cutting film into snippets with razor blades and then pasting them back together. They couldn&#8217;t have been less interested in making changes that would slow them down in the short term. They took comfort in their familiar ways, and change meant being uncomfortable. [&#8230;] If left up to the editors, no new tool would ever be designed and no improvements would be possible.</p>
  774. </blockquote>
  775.  
  776.  
  777.  
  778. <p>This made me think a lot about the early days of <a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/">Gutenberg</a> and the huge resistance it had in the community, including causing the fork of ClassicPress. Now that we&#8217;re much further along there&#8217;s a pretty widespread acceptance of Gutenberg, and it&#8217;s responsible for the vast majority of all WP posts and pages made, however if we had taken a vote for whether it should happen or not, it probably wouldn&#8217;t have ever gotten off the ground.</p>
  779.  
  780.  
  781.  
  782. <p>What’s funny is if you go back even further, using a visual WYSIWYG editor in the first place was very controversial, and many people didn’t want the classic editor brought into WordPress.</p>
  783. ]]></content>
  785. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/ed-catmull-on-change/#comments" thr:count="8" />
  786. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/ed-catmull-on-change/feed/atom/" thr:count="8" />
  787. <thr:total>8</thr:total>
  788. </entry>
  789. <entry>
  790. <author>
  791. <name>Matt</name>
  792. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  793. </author>
  794.  
  795. <title type="html"><![CDATA[On Logan Bartlett Show]]></title>
  796. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/logan-bartlett/" />
  797.  
  798. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=136823</id>
  799. <updated>2025-02-10T10:13:09Z</updated>
  800. <published>2025-02-07T20:50:34Z</published>
  801. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  802. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[You may not have heard of Logan Bartlett, but he&#8217;s one of the most hilarious people on Twitter and does a really interesting podcast. (He had a cool episode with Marc Benioff recently.) We sat down for a discussion on managing through crisis, open source and AI, employee liquidity, future of WordPress, and more. You &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/logan-bartlett/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">On Logan Bartlett Show</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  803.  
  804. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/02/logan-bartlett/"><![CDATA[
  805. <p>You may not have heard of <a href="https://x.com/loganbartlett">Logan Bartlett</a>, but he&#8217;s one of the most hilarious people on Twitter and does a really interesting podcast. (<a href="https://pca.st/9p91u5lv">He had a cool episode with Marc Benioff recently</a>.) We sat down for a discussion on managing through crisis, open source and AI, employee liquidity, future of WordPress, and more. You can watch on YouTube below or <a href="https://pca.st/j368ze4b">listen on Pocket Casts</a>.</p>
  806.  
  807.  
  808.  
  809. <figure class="wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  810. <iframe title="WordPress Co-Founder: Lessons from Controversy, Navigating Backlash, &amp; Future of Open Source AI" width="604" height="340" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tZaQmFQswm4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  811. </div></figure>
  812. ]]></content>
  814. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/logan-bartlett/#comments" thr:count="1" />
  815. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/logan-bartlett/feed/atom/" thr:count="1" />
  816. <thr:total>1</thr:total>
  817. </entry>
  818. <entry>
  819. <author>
  820. <name>Matt</name>
  821. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  822. </author>
  823.  
  824. <title type="html"><![CDATA[My First Million]]></title>
  825. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/my-first-million/" />
  826.  
  827. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=136139</id>
  828. <updated>2025-02-02T01:18:13Z</updated>
  829. <published>2025-02-02T01:18:13Z</published>
  830. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  831. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I had a great chat with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri on their podcast, My First Million.]]></summary>
  832.  
  833. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/02/my-first-million/"><![CDATA[
  834. <p>I had a great chat with <a href="https://linktr.ee/thesamparr">Sam Parr</a> and <a href="https://www.shaanpuri.com/">Shaan Puri</a> on their podcast, My First Million.</p>
  835.  
  836.  
  837.  
  838. <figure class="wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  839. <iframe loading="lazy" title="I Started WordPress at 19... Now It Powers 40% Of The Internet" width="604" height="340" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/onaLfllSBvw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  840. </div></figure>
  841. ]]></content>
  843. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/my-first-million/#comments" thr:count="4" />
  844. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/02/my-first-million/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" />
  845. <thr:total>4</thr:total>
  846. </entry>
  847. <entry>
  848. <author>
  849. <name>Matt</name>
  850. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  851. </author>
  852.  
  853. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Boom &#038; Deepseek]]></title>
  854. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/boom-deepseek/" />
  855.  
  856. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=135630</id>
  857. <updated>2025-01-28T20:16:29Z</updated>
  858. <published>2025-01-28T20:15:42Z</published>
  859. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  860. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[What an exciting time to be alive. I was hipped to Deepseek by Andrej Kaparthy&#8217;s tweet the day after Christmas, it was clear then that something big had happened and that it was truly open source and open weights (not this fake Llama stuff). It&#8217;s been fun to see the rest of the world catch &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/boom-deepseek/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Boom &#38; Deepseek</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  861.  
  862. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/01/boom-deepseek/"><![CDATA[
  863. <p>What an exciting time to be alive. I was <a href="https://x.com/karpathy/status/1872362712958906460">hipped to Deepseek by Andrej Kaparthy&#8217;s tweet the day after Christmas</a>, it was clear then that something big had happened and that it was truly open source and open weights (not this fake Llama stuff). It&#8217;s been fun to see the rest of the world catch up to it, and how radically accessible and deployable these models will be for people to hack on. I don&#8217;t have any comment on public markets or stocks.</p>
  864.  
  865.  
  866.  
  867. <p>The other super inspiring thing today was Boom&#8217;s first supersonic flight. It&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qisIViAHwI">worth watching the video</a>. We&#8217;re 4-5 years away from halving flight times with supersonic flight. In that same timeframe we might have something even more dramatic from SpaceX, like Houston to Tokyo in 30 minutes. Really cool to see the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation around all of these things. It&#8217;s tempting to get distracted by drama (WPE and legal battles), but there&#8217;s such freedom and joy in just continuing to build, to engineer, to solve problems. I&#8217;m so grateful I get to do so every day with such incredible colleagues at Automattic.</p>
  868.  
  869.  
  870.  
  871. <figure class="wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  872. <iframe loading="lazy" title="XB-1 First Supersonic Flight" width="604" height="340" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-qisIViAHwI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  873. </div></figure>
  874. ]]></content>
  876. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/boom-deepseek/#comments" thr:count="1" />
  877. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/boom-deepseek/feed/atom/" thr:count="1" />
  878. <thr:total>1</thr:total>
  879. </entry>
  880. <entry>
  881. <author>
  882. <name>Matt</name>
  883. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  884. </author>
  885.  
  886. <title type="html"><![CDATA[What&#8217;s in My Bag, 2025]]></title>
  887. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/2025-bag/" />
  888.  
  889. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=134660</id>
  890. <updated>2025-01-22T17:14:41Z</updated>
  891. <published>2025-01-21T06:13:47Z</published>
  892. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="In My Bag" />
  893. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[It&#8217;s another year, I have ordered all the things and tested all the cables, there&#8217;s a little bit about tech and a little bit about life. Here&#8217;s what made the cut, now I&#8217;m going to be factoring in weight of everything as well. The flat-lay this year was taken at my sister Charleen&#8217;s house, where &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/2025-bag/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">What&#8217;s in My Bag, 2025</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  894.  
  895. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/01/2025-bag/"><![CDATA[
  896. <p>It&#8217;s another year, I have ordered all the things and tested all the cables, there&#8217;s a little bit about tech and a little bit about life. Here&#8217;s what made the cut, now I&#8217;m going to be factoring in weight of everything as well.</p>
  897.  
  898.  
  899.  
  900. <p>The flat-lay this year was taken at my sister <a href="https://charleen.mullenweg.com/">Charleen&#8217;s</a> house, where she hosted Christmas for our family for the very first time. Charleen and I have worked on the home in Austin for several years and it was awesome to see it all spruced up for the holidays and also for my Mom to visit it for the first time in 13 years. Part of the idea of my sister being in Austin is that if there&#8217;s a hurricane or anything in Houston my Mom can just drive up a few hours and be totally comfortable, so we put in an elevator, solar panels, Powerwalls, fiber, and Starlink. Her house is also my Austin headquarters when I&#8217;m in town, she set up a nice desk for me to work. Christmas was the beta-test, with Mom + nurse + four dogs all up in Austin; the whole circus was cozy and comfy for the holidays.</p>
  901.  
  902.  
  903.  
  904. <p>I was telling my friend <a href="https://after-on.com/about-rob">Rob Reid</a> the stories of my Mom and sister&#8217;s homes said I had to listen to the song <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0vb5XuWzpyzuW3Tw8wLVRW?si=81e796c8f1b84cab">Get Mama a House by Teddybears and B.o.B</a>, it&#8217;s a good earworm and I will say that getting them both in beautiful homes they love has been one of the most rewarding things I&#8217;ve spent money on. So as advice for other entrepreneurs, get your momma a house! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
  905.  
  906.  
  907.  
  908. <p>TL;DR on the gadgets: The most significant change to my bag has been the introduction of the <a href="https://daylightcomputer.com/">Daylight Computer</a>, which I think everyone should have and is a genuinely new platform, and that we&#8217;ve finally reached reliability and excellence on retractable USB-C cords, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C855QRDN/?tag=photomatt08-20">these Baseus cords available in a variety of colors and 3.3ft and 6.6ft lengths</a>. I give them out like candy, everybody loves them. I&#8217;ve also started wearing <a href="https://havnwear.com/">Havn hats/underwear/shirts/etc</a> to block unnecessary EMF. (They used to be called Lambs.) And I&#8217;ve found great nootropic benefits with <a href="https://drywater.com/products/45-pack-variety-bundle">DryWater</a> and <a href="https://a.co/d/2yiywIO?tag=photomatt08-20">Celsius</a>. Without further ado, here&#8217;s the list:</p>
  909.  
  910.  
  911.  
  912. <figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="604" height="453" data-attachment-id="134662" data-permalink="https://ma.tt/2025/01/2025-bag/feefc5a6-82c0-4208-95ed-0c0267274f02_1_102_o/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?fit=2048%2C1536&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="2048,1536" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.78&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 16 Pro&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1735230784&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;6.7649998656528&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;80&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0067114093959732&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?fit=840%2C630&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?fit=604%2C453&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o-1024x768.jpeg?resize=604%2C453&#038;quality=89&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-134662" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?resize=840%2C630&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 840w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?resize=195%2C146&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 195w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?resize=613%2C460&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 613w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?w=2048&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?w=1208&amp;quality=89 1208w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/01/FEEFC5A6-82C0-4208-95ED-0C0267274F02_1_102_o.jpeg?w=1812&amp;quality=89 1812w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px" /></figure>
  913.  
  914.  
  915.  
  916. <p>THE BACKPACK</p>
  917.  
  918.  
  919.  
  920. <ol class="wp-block-list">
  921. <li><a href="https://aersf.com/collections/backpacks/products/fit-pack-3?country=US">Aer Fit Pack 3 backpack</a>. This is still my go-to, and it&#8217;s embroidered with Automattic and WordPress logos. This is part of our standard swag at <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a>, and I&#8217;d like to get a WP-embroidered one on our .org swag store when that&#8217;s back up.</li>
  922. </ol>
  923.  
  924.  
  925.  
  926. <p>DEVICES</p>
  927.  
  928.  
  929.  
  930. <ol start="2" class="wp-block-list">
  931. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DLHMYX53?tag=photomatt08-20">16&#8243; Macbook Pro</a>, right now the M4 Max with 128 GB RAM, amazing what you can run locally on this this thing. I&#8217;m very excited about inference at the edge in the coming years. </li>
  932.  
  933.  
  934.  
  935. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3J98VKZ/?tag=photomatt08-20">iPad Pro</a>, which I use as a second display when I&#8217;m on the road using Apple&#8217;s screen mirroring giving me another 10 inches of screen.</li>
  936.  
  937.  
  938.  
  939. <li><a href="https://daylightcomputer.com/product">Daylight Computer DC-1</a> represents the first truly new platform I spend time on. It&#8217;s a healthier way of computing and I would like to increase my % screentime on it in the coming years. Also amazing for kids.</li>
  940.  
  941.  
  942.  
  943. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B495319/?tag=photomatt08-20">Kindle Paperwhite</a>, this might lose to the Daylight in the future but I do like its form factor.</li>
  944.  
  945.  
  946.  
  947. <li><a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-16-pro">iPhone 16 Pro</a>, you use your phone so much just always have the latest model. This is my primary phone.</li>
  948.  
  949.  
  950.  
  951. <li><a href="https://store.google.com/config/pixel_9_pro?hl=en-US&amp;selections=eyJwcm9kdWN0RmFtaWx5IjoiY0dsNFpXeGZPVjl3Y204PSIsInZhcmlhbnRzIjpbWyI3IiwiTVRFPSJdLFsiMiIsIk5URT0iXV19">Google Pixel 9 Pro</a> finally is iPhone-parity for me, I use this mostly for tethering with <a href="https://fi.google.com/">Google Fi</a> and testing our apps on Android. I got the pink one, it&#8217;s really a beautiful device and I could imagine a world where it was my daily driver but there&#8217;s just so much convenience in the continuity features of an all-Apple life. It&#8217;s the little things, like copy and paste, that really hook you.</li>
  952. </ol>
  953.  
  954.  
  955.  
  956. <p>One nice thing is that the iPad and two phones all have connectivity plans, which I try to spread across different providers so I always have something that works or I can tether to.</p>
  957.  
  958.  
  959.  
  960. <p>POWER/ADAPTER</p>
  961.  
  962.  
  963.  
  964. <p>You should ABC, Always Be Charging!</p>
  965.  
  966.  
  967.  
  968. <ol start="8" class="wp-block-list">
  969. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/2mfeqw4?tag=photomatt08-20">Baseus 8-in-1 USB-C hub</a>, 99% of the time this is used as an ethernet or HDMI connector, it&#8217;s pretty reliable and not too heavy. (86 grams)</li>
  970.  
  971.  
  972.  
  973. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/bQb5n19?tag=photomatt08-20">Anker 150W Charger Block</a>, this is just a little extra, I could probably drop it.</li>
  974.  
  975.  
  976.  
  977. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/fzb7i3Y?tag=photomatt08-20">Anker 47W Nano Charger</a>, nice for setting up a charging station by the bed.</li>
  978.  
  979.  
  980.  
  981. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3Q9JW2G?tag=photomatt08-20">Baseus 100W</a> power cable, with detachable charging block. This is the core of the entire system, and most of the time I just use this. It&#8217;s chunky at 236 grams but anchors everything else.</li>
  982.  
  983.  
  984.  
  985. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/9FfU7Wp?tag=photomatt08-20">Belkin 37W Dual USB Car Charger</a>, which I find myself using mostly in Europe when in transfers.</li>
  986.  
  987.  
  988.  
  989. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/cMb9YYc?tag=photomatt08-20">USB-C adapters</a>, just in case.</li>
  990.  
  991.  
  992.  
  993. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/dA4UKRv?tag=photomatt08-20">Whoop 4.0 Charger/Battery Pack</a>, I really enjoy the stress and sleep tracking features of the Whoop, and this keeps it charged. <a href="https://ma.tt/2023/06/whoop-podcast/">I did a podcast with their founder Will Ahmed</a>.</li>
  994. </ol>
  995.  
  996.  
  997.  
  998. <p>CABLES</p>
  999.  
  1000.  
  1001.  
  1002. <ol start="15" class="wp-block-list">
  1003. <li><a href="https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-4-micro-usb-3-0-charge-and-sync-cable-black/6380169.p?skuId=6380169&amp;intl=nosplash">Insignia Micro USB 3.0 Charger</a>, this is by far the most cursed cable I carry around, which is for taking photos off my Nikon SLR.</li>
  1004.  
  1005.  
  1006.  
  1007. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/9B9FaYI?tag=photomatt08-20">Cable Matters 4K HDMI Cable</a>, I like the ultra-thin and this can be clutch when connecting to a conference room or hotel TV.</li>
  1008.  
  1009.  
  1010.  
  1011. <li>Baseus 100W/5A retractable cables, now in two sizes <a href="https://a.co/d/6Q8UFj6?tag=photomatt08-20">3.3ft </a>and <a href="https://a.co/d/dSqfFjF?tag=photomatt08-20">6.6ft </a>(about 100cm/200cm). These are my favorite new things! Love love love.</li>
  1012.  
  1013.  
  1014.  
  1015. <li><a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MT0H3AM/A/apple-watch-magnetic-fast-charger-to-usb-c-cable-1-m?">Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger</a>, I also usually wear an Apple Watch Ultra. I don&#8217;t do too many notifications, but it&#8217;s amazing for finding my phone.</li>
  1016. </ol>
  1017.  
  1018.  
  1019.  
  1020. <p>AUDIO</p>
  1021.  
  1022.  
  1023.  
  1024. <ol start="19" class="wp-block-list">
  1025. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/5mkyrML?tag=photomatt08-20">AirPods Pro Gen 2</a> for pairing with the iPhone, these are so good and if I forget them it&#8217;s the first thing I pick up at the airport electronics store.</li>
  1026.  
  1027.  
  1028.  
  1029. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/fSvMQHK?tag=photomatt08-20">Pixel Buds Pro</a>, for pairing with the Pixel 9 Pro, also amazing I just don&#8217;t use as much.</li>
  1030.  
  1031.  
  1032.  
  1033. <li><a href="https://soundgear.com/collections/custom-earplugs">Custom ear plugs</a>, for protecting hearing when the sound or music is too loud.</li>
  1034.  
  1035.  
  1036.  
  1037. <li><a href="https://pro.ultimateears.com/pages/ue-premier">UE Premier custom headphones</a>, this is still the best audiophile experience I have, great on planes.</li>
  1038.  
  1039.  
  1040.  
  1041. <li><a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MW2Q3AM/A/usb-c-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter?fnode=5ecb8873ff26cd324e22e1f34b2f927d64f27701993c1c25726ce6e7419c4f3f4c5a72cfb3887a8d74ba087a48c83b222ea9716d9237d80fded92fe23a58f41e2eb8cac0c255a4ad06d249fff0439d2ee2f05abb10bc7abf8f257c671cf9bb7d">USB-C Headphone Jack Adapter</a></li>
  1042.  
  1043.  
  1044.  
  1045. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/9A9r8Uw?tag=photomatt08-20">Belkin RockStar 5-Jack Audio Splitter</a></li>
  1046.  
  1047.  
  1048.  
  1049. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/8AhUQDT?tag=photomatt08-20">Belkin RockStar 3.5mm Audio w/USB-C Charge Adapter</a></li>
  1050. </ol>
  1051.  
  1052.  
  1053.  
  1054. <p>MISCELLANEOUS ELECTRONICS&nbsp;</p>
  1055.  
  1056.  
  1057.  
  1058. <ol start="26" class="wp-block-list">
  1059. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YY7BH2W/?tag=photomatt08-20">Aranet4 CO2 monitor</a>, this can change your life, if the area you&#8217;re in isn&#8217;t well ventilated then you run cognitively lower without even noticing it.</li>
  1060.  
  1061.  
  1062.  
  1063. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/3c2R6iQ?tag=photomatt08-20">Logitech mouse</a>, with quiet clicks, I find a mouse is just ergonomically an easy productivity upgrade from the built-in trackpad.</li>
  1064.  
  1065.  
  1066.  
  1067. <li><a href="https://flipperzero.one/">Flipper Zero</a>, the funnest little cloning gadget I&#8217;ve tried.</li>
  1068.  
  1069.  
  1070.  
  1071. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/0ptXcgm?tag=photomatt08-20">Pixel G1s RGB Video Light</a>, can be used in party mode to set lights.</li>
  1072.  
  1073.  
  1074.  
  1075. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/3mWpYCR?tag=photomatt08-20">USB-C chargeable Candle Lighter</a></li>
  1076.  
  1077.  
  1078.  
  1079. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/0ovjqEv?tag=photomatt08-20">Petzl E_LITE Headlamp</a></li>
  1080.  
  1081.  
  1082.  
  1083. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09P8CNRK1/?tag=photomatt08-20">Universal Airplane Phone Holder</a></li>
  1084. </ol>
  1085.  
  1086.  
  1087.  
  1088. <p>PERSONAL ITEMS</p>
  1089.  
  1090.  
  1091.  
  1092. <ol start="33" class="wp-block-list">
  1093. <li>Passport</li>
  1094.  
  1095.  
  1096.  
  1097. <li><a href="https://www.hermes.com/us/en/product/calvi-card-holder-H064954CK0L/">Hermes business card holder</a>, which I&#8217;ve been using more since spending more time in Asia with the increased community activity there.</li>
  1098.  
  1099.  
  1100.  
  1101. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/1e49QG0?tag=photomatt08-20">Thread Wallet elastic card holder/wallet</a>&nbsp;</li>
  1102.  
  1103.  
  1104.  
  1105. <li><a href="https://hayshop.com.au/products/portemonnaie-denim">Hay catch-all Pouch</a></li>
  1106.  
  1107.  
  1108.  
  1109. <li><a href="https://www.sea2see.org/products/treviso-sun?variant=20495073771618">Sea2See Sunglasses</a></li>
  1110.  
  1111.  
  1112.  
  1113. <li><a href="https://www.marunao.com/cms_en/products/308/">Marunao mint case</a></li>
  1114.  
  1115.  
  1116.  
  1117. <li><a href="https://lockpicktools.com/folding-pocket-set/">Lockpick set</a>, you can learn to unlock most locks in a few hours of training. Like the Flipper this is kinda a hacker tool.</li>
  1118.  
  1119.  
  1120.  
  1121. <li>Blue Rock, a little worry stone you can hold in your hand and rub.</li>
  1122.  
  1123.  
  1124.  
  1125. <li>WordPress ring, because I&#8217;m married to the game.</li>
  1126.  
  1127.  
  1128.  
  1129. <li>WordPress pin, spruces up any outfit with a little open source rizz.</li>
  1130.  
  1131.  
  1132.  
  1133. <li>Plastic holder with stickers&nbsp;for our various brands and products, I love seeing WordPress or Tumblr stickers in random places, and sometimes place them myself.</li>
  1134.  
  1135.  
  1136.  
  1137. <li><a href="https://ugmonk.com/pages/analog">Notecards from Ugmonk Analog</a>, you can rabbit hole their entire site to upgrade your desk game. Lovely stuff.</li>
  1138.  
  1139.  
  1140.  
  1141. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T9CHYOU/?tag=photomatt08-20&amp;th=1">Maruman N196A Nemosine Notebook</a>.</li>
  1142.  
  1143.  
  1144.  
  1145. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/j9aIm7e?tag=photomatt08-20">OHTO Needle-point Pen 0.7mm</a>, picked up in Japan and I like for when I want to draft something more thin-lined.</li>
  1146.  
  1147.  
  1148.  
  1149. <li><a href="https://www.montblanc.com/en-us/ballpoint-pens_cod1647597318123131.html">Montblanc Heritage Egyptomania Doue ballpoint pen</a>, which I like for signing important things and also crossing out todos on the Ugmonk cards.</li>
  1150. </ol>
  1151.  
  1152.  
  1153.  
  1154. <p>TRAVEL ESSENTIALS</p>
  1155.  
  1156.  
  1157.  
  1158. <ol start="48" class="wp-block-list">
  1159. <li><a href="https://www.icewear.is/us/hvitanes-neckband-merino-wool?gad_source=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAj9m7BhD1ARIsANsIIvAXoVrkR68S3b-R-AM4uZUOiy8SUMSmcGuLjL06XZ33ixkMkepkM5waAvJ_EALw_wcB">Icewear Merino wool gaiter</a></li>
  1160.  
  1161.  
  1162.  
  1163. <li><a href="https://havnwear.com/product/wavestopper-beanie?Style=Grey+Ribbed">Lambs EMF WaveStopper beanie</a>, literally a tin-foil hat.</li>
  1164.  
  1165.  
  1166.  
  1167. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/16Y5C4t?tag=photomatt08-20">RAINS insulated gloves</a></li>
  1168.  
  1169.  
  1170.  
  1171. <li><a href="https://www.gorewear.com/us/en-us/m-windstopper-thermo-beanie-100391">Gore Thermo Beanie</a></li>
  1172.  
  1173.  
  1174.  
  1175. <li><a href="https://olospace.myshopify.com/products/invision-eye-mask">Olo InVision Eye Mask</a>&nbsp;</li>
  1176.  
  1177.  
  1178.  
  1179. <li><a href="https://www.theherbbar.com/product/thieves-ready-to-roll-1-3-oz-/936?cp=true&amp;sa=false&amp;sbp=false&amp;q=false&amp;category_id=30">Herb Bar essential oil blend</a>, always nice to have something good-smelling around. Not endorsing this specifically, but I always have some essential oil around.</li>
  1180.  
  1181.  
  1182.  
  1183. <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0062ALC9U/?tag=photomatt08-20">Immunity Throat Spray</a>, suggested to me by the mushroom GOAT himself, Paul Stamets, I saw him use this at an event we were both at. When I travel or am around a bunch of people I&#8217;ll do three sprays in morning and night, and I&#8217;ve often been the one in my group to not get the &#8220;conference cold&#8221; that goes around.</li>
  1184.  
  1185.  
  1186.  
  1187. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/cu0IIMj">Z-Biotics</a>, introduced to me by my friend Sid, it&#8217;s kind of a game-changer anytime you drink, lessens the negative effects of alcohol. It works so well there&#8217;s a possibility of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard">moral hazard</a>. They have some new stuff around fiber, it&#8217;s an interesting company to follow.</li>
  1188.  
  1189.  
  1190.  
  1191. <li><a href="https://a.co/d/2yiywIO?tag=photomatt08-20">Celsius energy powder packet</a>, this is nice to turn any drink into a Celsius, when you need an extra boost. Be careful with these as they have 200mg of caffeine! I try to avoid after 2pm, and not in first hour I wake up.</li>
  1192.  
  1193.  
  1194.  
  1195. <li><a href="https://drywater.com/products/45-pack-variety-bundle">DryWater electrolytes powder packet</a>, I&#8217;ve switched to this over LMNT because I like the ingredients and sourcing better. Electrolytes when you first wake up is better than coffee, I&#8217;ll often mix this with tea.</li>
  1196. </ol>
  1197.  
  1198.  
  1199.  
  1200. <p>If you want to get super-nerdy, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_YM7K7OUMc2_8qqsCRHAAe2T2bgrciC4TRtDlO_aZfU/edit?usp=sharing">here&#8217;s a spreadsheet with the weights</a>. Basically I&#8217;m 10.7 pounds of computing devices (Macbook, iPad, Daylight, Flipper, iPhone, Pixel), and ten pounds of other stuff. Add in a bottle of water or other random things I put in the bag ends up being ~22-28 pounds most of the time, which I&#8217;d like to get down.</p>
  1201.  
  1202.  
  1203.  
  1204. <p>But with my backpack I can tackle a really wide variety of situations. It&#8217;s fun! If you have any tips or suggestions please leave them in the comments! I&#8217;m always trying out new gear.</p>
  1205. ]]></content>
  1207. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/2025-bag/#comments" thr:count="50" />
  1208. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/2025-bag/feed/atom/" thr:count="50" />
  1209. <thr:total>50</thr:total>
  1210. </entry>
  1211. <entry>
  1212. <author>
  1213. <name>Matt</name>
  1214. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  1215. </author>
  1216.  
  1217. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Matt 4.1]]></title>
  1218. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/forty-one/" />
  1219.  
  1220. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=134653</id>
  1221. <updated>2025-01-14T17:52:47Z</updated>
  1222. <published>2025-01-12T01:55:07Z</published>
  1223. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Birthday" />
  1224. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Forty-one is a nice birthday because it doesn&#8217;t feel like too much pressure. For forty I did a big eclipse thing that ended up amazing, this year I&#8217;m replicating what I did a few years ago and celebrating in New York, Houston, and San Francisco. My birthday today has already been lovely. Saw the amazing &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/forty-one/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Matt 4.1</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  1225.  
  1226. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/01/forty-one/"><![CDATA[
  1227. <p>Forty-one is a nice birthday because it doesn&#8217;t feel like too much pressure. For forty I did a big eclipse thing that ended up amazing, this year I&#8217;m replicating what I did a few years ago and celebrating in New York, Houston, and San Francisco.</p>
  1228.  
  1229.  
  1230.  
  1231. <p>My birthday today has already been lovely. Saw the amazing Broadway show <a href="https://www.maybehappyending.com/">Maybe Happy Ending</a> (powered by WordPress!) thanks to a suggestion from my colleague Susan Hobbs who&#8217;s a connoisseur of musicals. Then did some fun karaoke in K-town. I didn&#8217;t realize how much I missed New York! Tonight will celebrate with one of my favorite DJs, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/lemuriansounds">Lemurian</a>, who flew up from Tulum. In the spirit of <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/01/birthday-gift/">a blog post for my birthday,</a> I&#8217;d like to share with you all a blog post I&#8217;ve been working on a while inspired by one of Lemurian&#8217;s mixes. In 2018 Max (aka Lemurian) played at someplace called Concept and opened with a very interesting track.</p>
  1232.  
  1233.  
  1234.  
  1235. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-block-embed-soundcloud"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  1236. <iframe loading="lazy" title="Lemurian Live @ Concept | New York City (11.15.18) by Lemurian" width="604" height="400" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F532461108&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=906&#038;maxwidth=604"></iframe>
  1237. </div></figure>
  1238.  
  1239.  
  1240.  
  1241. <p>Now, the thing that caught my ear was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassoon">bassoon</a>. A double-reed instrument that you don&#8217;t often hear in the front of things, much less house music. Here is the original track on Spotify:</p>
  1242.  
  1243.  
  1244.  
  1245. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  1246. <iframe title="Spotify Embed: Preciso Me Encontrar" style="border-radius: 12px" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/5AKrqJ7RiOCfCaaCuxxGk0?si=fc9633a426b741ad&#038;utm_source=oembed"></iframe>
  1247. </div></figure>
  1248.  
  1249.  
  1250.  
  1251. <p>This lead me down a rabbit hole to <a href="https://lyricalbrazil.com/2014/01/17/coisas-banais-and-preciso-me-encontrar/">an amazing (WordPress-powered) site called Lyrical Brazil that takes the Brazilian Portuguese lyrics and translates them</a>. Please read that entire blog post. It turns out this song was written by a police officer who was shot and then paralyzed from the waist down, then started a Brazilian music school Candeia which was a fixture of Portela samba school. Here&#8217;s the lyrics of the song, translated:</p>
  1252.  
  1253.  
  1254.  
  1255. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1256. <p>Let me go, I need to wander<br>I’ll go around, seeking<br>To laugh, so as not to cry (repeat)<br>I want to watch the sun rise, to see the rivers’ waters flow<br>To hear the birds sing<br>I want to be born, I want to live<br>Let me go, I need to wander<br>I’ll go around, seeking<br>To laugh, so as not to cry<br>If anyone asks after me, tell them I’ll only come back after I find myself<br>I want to watch the sun rise, to see the rivers’ waters flow<br>To hear the birds sing<br>I want to be born, I want to live… (repeat)</p>
  1257. </blockquote>
  1258.  
  1259.  
  1260.  
  1261. <p>Stunning poetry. Made all the better when you understand the context in which is was written.</p>
  1262.  
  1263.  
  1264.  
  1265. <p>One of the things I say to my friends is that in lieu of birthday gifts I just want them to publish, whether it&#8217;s words, photos, music, or anything. I leave you all with that. Each of us has an incredible story, a unique life experience that is yours and no one else&#8217;s. Find a way to express that creatively, and put that on the open web. It&#8217;s scary! Vulnerable. But you&#8217;ll find once you do that the rewards are better than you ever imagined. 2025 is going to be a weird year, let&#8217;s blog through it. Mazel tov!</p>
  1266.  
  1267.  
  1268.  
  1269. <p>All birthday posts: <a href="https://ma.tt/2003/01/bday/">19</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2004/01/so-im-20/">20</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2005/01/hot-barely-legal-matt/">21</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2006/01/matt-22/">22</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2007/01/twenty-three/">23</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2008/01/twenty-four/">24</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2009/01/twenty-five/">25</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2010/01/twenty-six/">26</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2011/01/twenty-seven/">27</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2012/01/twenty-eight/">28</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2013/01/twenty-nine/">29</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2014/01/matt-3-0/">30</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2015/01/thirty-one/">31</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/01/thirty-two/">32</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2017/01/thirty-three/">33</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2018/01/thirty-four/">34</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2019/01/thirty-five/">35</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2020/01/thirty-six/">36</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2021/01/thirty-seven/">37</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2022/01/thirty-eight/">38</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2023/01/thirty-nine/">39</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/01/forty/">40</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/forty-one/">41</a>.</p>
  1270. ]]></content>
  1272. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/forty-one/#comments" thr:count="19" />
  1273. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/forty-one/feed/atom/" thr:count="19" />
  1274. <thr:total>19</thr:total>
  1275. </entry>
  1276. <entry>
  1277. <author>
  1278. <name>Matt</name>
  1279. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  1280. </author>
  1281.  
  1282. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Status Quo]]></title>
  1283. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/status-quo/" />
  1284.  
  1285. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=134651</id>
  1286. <updated>2025-01-11T02:38:47Z</updated>
  1287. <published>2025-01-11T02:38:47Z</published>
  1288. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Asides" />
  1289. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I wrote over on WordPress.org about breaking the status quo with a Joost/Karim fork. It&#8217;s a perfect time as Automattic is re-focusing its work while the legal stuff is going on.]]></summary>
  1290.  
  1291. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/01/status-quo/"><![CDATA[
  1292. <p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/jkpress/">I wrote over on WordPress.org about breaking the status quo with a Joost/Karim fork</a>. It&#8217;s a perfect time as <a href="https://automattic.com/2025/01/09/aligning-automattics-sponsored-contributions-to-wordpress/">Automattic is re-focusing its work while the legal stuff is going on</a>.</p>
  1293. ]]></content>
  1295. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/status-quo/#comments" thr:count="3" />
  1296. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/status-quo/feed/atom/" thr:count="3" />
  1297. <thr:total>3</thr:total>
  1298. </entry>
  1299. <entry>
  1300. <author>
  1301. <name>Matt</name>
  1302. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  1303. </author>
  1304.  
  1305. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Studio Sync]]></title>
  1306. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/studio-sync/" />
  1307.  
  1308. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=134649</id>
  1309. <updated>2025-01-09T18:24:18Z</updated>
  1310. <published>2025-01-08T18:23:17Z</published>
  1311. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="WordPress" />
  1312. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[WordPress.com&#160;launched&#160;a new update to Studio this week, and we’re&#160;already seeing some buzz. Studio&#160;is our free and open source app for local WordPress development, enabling you to spin up unlimited WordPress sites on your personal computer. Through its newest feature, Studio Sync, you have complete freedom to: Studio is an excellent tool to have in your &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/studio-sync/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Studio Sync</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  1313.  
  1314. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2025/01/studio-sync/"><![CDATA[
  1315. <p><a target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress.com</a>&nbsp;launched&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/01/06/studio-sync/" rel="noreferrer noopener">a new update to Studio this week</a>, and we’re&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-com-launches-studio-sync-local-development/536927/" rel="noreferrer noopener">already seeing some buzz</a>.</p>
  1316.  
  1317.  
  1318.  
  1319. <p><a target="_blank" href="https://developer.wordpress.com/studio/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Studio</a>&nbsp;is our free and open source app for local WordPress development, enabling you to spin up unlimited WordPress sites on your personal computer.</p>
  1320.  
  1321.  
  1322.  
  1323. <p>Through its newest feature, Studio Sync, you have complete freedom to:</p>
  1324.  
  1325.  
  1326.  
  1327. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  1328. <li>Connect your Studio site to and from a <a href="http://wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress.com</a> production or staging site, included for free in <a href="https://wordpress.com/hosting/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Business and Commerce hosting plans</a>.</li>
  1329.  
  1330.  
  1331.  
  1332. <li>Push and pull changes as a team by connecting a local Studio site to a shared <a href="http://wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress.com</a> site.</li>
  1333.  
  1334.  
  1335.  
  1336. <li>Synchronize your local and hosted sites at any time with one click.</li>
  1337. </ul>
  1338.  
  1339.  
  1340.  
  1341. <p>Studio is an excellent tool to have in your development arsenal, and you can&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://developer.wordpress.com/studio/" rel="noreferrer noopener">download it for free</a>, explore the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/developer-tools/studio/" rel="noreferrer noopener">docs</a>, and become a contributor on&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/Automattic/studio/issues" rel="noreferrer noopener">GitHub</a>.</p>
  1342. ]]></content>
  1344. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/studio-sync/#comments" thr:count="0" />
  1345. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2025/01/studio-sync/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" />
  1346. <thr:total>0</thr:total>
  1347. </entry>
  1348. <entry>
  1349. <author>
  1350. <name>Matt</name>
  1351. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  1352. </author>
  1353.  
  1354. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Inc Hit Piece]]></title>
  1355. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/" />
  1356.  
  1357. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=132691</id>
  1358. <updated>2024-12-20T23:01:04Z</updated>
  1359. <published>2024-12-19T17:09:02Z</published>
  1360. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="Press" />
  1361. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[When Inc Magazine reached out to have David H. Freedman (website powered by WordPress) write a feature piece I was excited because though Inc wasn&#8217;t a magazine I have read much since I was a teenager, David seemed like a legit journalist who usually writes for better publications like The Atlantic. I opened up to &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Inc Hit Piece</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  1362.  
  1363. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/"><![CDATA[
  1364. <p>When Inc Magazine reached out to have <a href="https://freedman.com/">David H. Freedman</a> (website powered by WordPress) write a feature piece I was excited because though Inc wasn&#8217;t a magazine I have read much since I was a teenager, David seemed like a legit journalist who usually writes for better publications like The Atlantic. I opened up to David with a number of vulnerable stories, and allowed the photo shoot in my home in Houston.</p>
  1365.  
  1366.  
  1367.  
  1368. <p>Whether it was him or his editors, <a href="https://www.inc.com/dfreedman/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-wp-engine/90994969">unfortunately the piece has turned out pretty biased and negative</a>, even to the point of cherry-picking negative photos from the photo shoot they did in my home. It also has a number of basic errors which make me question the fact-checking and editorial integrity of Inc in the first place. Let&#8217;s go through it.</p>
  1369.  
  1370.  
  1371.  
  1372. <p>Although they have dozens of photos of me smiling, it starts with one where I look pretty morose. At least I got some Sonny Rollins and Audrey Hepburn in the background.</p>
  1373.  
  1374.  
  1375.  
  1376. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="604" height="340" data-attachment-id="132705" data-permalink="https://ma.tt/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-2/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?fit=1920%2C1080&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1920,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?fit=840%2C473&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?fit=604%2C340&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?resize=604%2C340&#038;quality=80&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-132705" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?w=1920&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?resize=840%2C473&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 840w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?resize=1024%2C576&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?resize=195%2C110&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 195w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?resize=768%2C432&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?resize=1536%2C864&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?resize=818%2C460&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 818w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?w=1208&amp;quality=80 1208w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inc-vertical-edited.webp?w=1812&amp;quality=80 1812w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px" /></figure>
  1377.  
  1378.  
  1379.  
  1380. <p>The article starts with a conversation David had with me while we were both in the bathroom, away from his recorder, where he remarked that the bathroom was really nice. I talked about visiting Google in 2004 when I first came to San Francisco and thinking they had cheap toilet paper, and how given that Automattic&#8217;s offices are barely used there&#8217;s no reason not to spend a few extra bucks on nice soap and toilet paper to give a better experience to employees and visitors. (For those curious, we use <a href="https://www.aesop.com/">Aesop soap</a> and <a href="https://us.whogivesacrap.org/">Who Gives A Crap toilet paper</a>, a brand that donates 50% of profits to charity.) I chose these brands because it&#8217;s what I use in my home, and I want people in our offices to have the same quality. David spins it thusly:</p>
  1381.  
  1382.  
  1383.  
  1384. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1385. <p>I ask him who at Automattic, the estimated $710-million company of which Mullenweg is CEO, is responsible for toilet paper and soap quality control?</p>
  1386.  
  1387.  
  1388.  
  1389. <p>“Me,” he says, beaming.&nbsp;</p>
  1390.  
  1391.  
  1392.  
  1393. <p>Of course, Mullenweg’s control of Automattic extends well beyond the bathroom walls.</p>
  1394. </blockquote>
  1395.  
  1396.  
  1397.  
  1398. <p>Now you know how the rest of the piece is going to go! <strong>Factual errors mixed with bias.</strong> First, no credible business publication would put Automattic&#8217;s valuation at $710 million, <a href="https://ma.tt/2021/08/funding-buyback-hiring/">our last Series E primary round was at $7.5 billion</a>. That was 2021 and we&#8217;d probably trade closer to $5B now with current multiples, but still the article is an order-of-magnitude off.</p>
  1399.  
  1400.  
  1401.  
  1402. <p>David asked if there was a person responsible for choosing toiletries: of course not! We have better things to work on. The entire thing took probably 30 seconds of my time, from going to the bathroom in our New York office to sending a Slack message, and I haven&#8217;t thought about it since until David commented about our bathrooms being nice, while we were both in the bathroom and I was washing my hands. Okay, back to the article.</p>
  1403.  
  1404.  
  1405.  
  1406. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1407. <p>And it all began when Mullenweg got very annoyed, very publicly, at a $400 million company called WP Engine.&nbsp;</p>
  1408. </blockquote>
  1409.  
  1410.  
  1411.  
  1412. <p>Once again, Inc is unable to distinguish between revenue and valuation.</p>
  1413.  
  1414.  
  1415.  
  1416. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1417. <p>On September 25, more than 1.5 million websites around the world suddenly lost the ability to make some routine software updates.</p>
  1418. </blockquote>
  1419.  
  1420.  
  1421.  
  1422. <p>First, WP Engine doesn&#8217;t host 1.5 million WordPress sites. <a href="https://wordpressenginetracker.com/">This was easily checked on our website WordPressEngineTracker.com</a>, which as best we can tell from crawling the web, looking at domain registrations and public data from <a href="https://builtwith.com/">BuiltWith</a> and <a href="https://w3techs.com/">W3Techs</a>, they probably had ~745k sites on September 25th, so the second number in the piece is off by 2x. Second, those sites could still do software updates using WP Engine&#8217;s tools or by uploading new versions, it was just the connectivity between WP Engine&#8217;s datacenters and WordPress.org&#8217;s that was impacted for a few days.</p>
  1423.  
  1424.  
  1425.  
  1426. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1427. <p>WP Engine had royally pissed off Matt Mullenweg for not contributing enough to the open-source community, in his opinion.&nbsp;Mullenweg claims he had been in negotiations with WP Engine for months to get them to cough up their fair share one way or another, but finally decided the company had dragged its feet for too long, leading him to break off talks and go public with his ire.</p>
  1428. </blockquote>
  1429.  
  1430.  
  1431.  
  1432. <p>No, the negotiations, and what they were doing wrong, was abuse of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks. I <em>also</em> think it&#8217;s lame how little they&#8217;re involved in the software their entire business is built on and their ability to serve customers was dependent on free server resources and bandwidth from WordPress.org, but our negotiations were about trademark use.</p>
  1433.  
  1434.  
  1435.  
  1436. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1437. <p>Mullenweg controls the WordPress Foundation, the non-profit that oversees WordPress’s open-source software, the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/">website</a>&nbsp;that serves as the gateway to WordPress resources, and the WordPress trademark.</p>
  1438. </blockquote>
  1439.  
  1440.  
  1441.  
  1442. <p>False, false, false. First, I do not control the WordPress Foundation. I am one of three board members, so by definition am not in control. The other two board members could remove me at any time. Second, the Foundation does not oversee the core software, or the WordPress.org website! This is super clear in WPE&#8217;s legal filings, in the about pages of the respective websites, by talking to anyone who understands this. Really shoddy journalism.</p>
  1443.  
  1444.  
  1445.  
  1446. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1447. <p>The nearly 1,700 employees—a number that reflects the&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/04/159-employees-are-leaving-automattic-as-ceos-fight-with-wp-engine-escalates">more than 150 who have left in the past few months</a>—are scattered officeless across 90 countries.</p>
  1448. </blockquote>
  1449.  
  1450.  
  1451.  
  1452. <p><a href="https://automattic.com/about/">As you can see on our about page</a>, Automattic has 1,750 employees, not &#8220;nearly 1,700.&#8221;</p>
  1453.  
  1454.  
  1455.  
  1456. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1457. <p>In person, Mullenweg comes off as surprisingly chill when we meet on October 22, given all the angry online noise and employee turmoil surrounding the WP Engine beef for the past three weeks. He is a young-looking, animated 40 with a near-constant grin, and his neat beard and shawl-collar cardigan sweater contribute to his laid-back air.</p>
  1458. </blockquote>
  1459.  
  1460.  
  1461.  
  1462. <p>I&#8217;m quoting this just to show they would occasionally say something nice before twisting the knife or going back into inaccuracies. A &#8220;near-constant grin&#8221; they couldn&#8217;t capture in photos.</p>
  1463.  
  1464.  
  1465.  
  1466. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1467. <p>Two days later, a comment popped up under the post from a U.K. coder named Mike Little: Would he like some help?&nbsp;</p>
  1468.  
  1469.  
  1470.  
  1471. <p>Three obsessive days later, Mullenweg released the results and followed a friend’s advice to name it WordPress— only after checking to make sure the domain names WordPress.com and WordPress.org were available. This domain ownership would prove critical.</p>
  1472. </blockquote>
  1473.  
  1474.  
  1475.  
  1476. <p>It&#8217;s true that Mike Little commented a few days <a href="https://ma.tt/2003/01/the-blogging-software-dilemma/">after my blog post</a> in January 2003, but WordPress&#8217; first release wasn&#8217;t until May 27<sup>th</sup>, 2003. Not &#8220;three obsessive days later.&#8221; This fact could have been easily verified by digging deep into obscure sources <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress">like the Wikipedia entry for WordPress</a>.</p>
  1477.  
  1478.  
  1479.  
  1480. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1481. <p>Though there are different versions of open-source licenses, the general idea is that anyone can freely download and use the software, and anyone can modify it as they see fit, and then release it as their own version. But the original developer of the fork retains the trademark rights. And when it comes to WordPress, the rights belong to Mullenweg.&nbsp;<br></p>
  1482. </blockquote>
  1483.  
  1484.  
  1485.  
  1486. <p>I&#8217;m not sure where to start&#8230; The WordPress trademark doesn&#8217;t belong to Mullenweg, it belongs to the WordPress Foundation. David has clearly not been able to figure things out at this point. But again, <a href="https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78826734&amp;caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&amp;caseType=DEFAULT&amp;searchType=statusSearch">this is easily checked by looking at the WordPress trademark on the USPTO site</a>.</p>
  1487.  
  1488.  
  1489.  
  1490. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1491. <p>A&nbsp;<a href="https://wpengine.com/resources/value-of-wordpress-worlds-first-study-of-wordpress-economy/">2020 study commissioned by WP Engine</a>&nbsp;calculated the value of all business driven by WordPress to be $600 billion, and growing rapidly. No one gets a bigger piece of that pie than Automattic.</p>
  1492. </blockquote>
  1493.  
  1494.  
  1495.  
  1496. <p>Okay, now after saying Automattic is worth $710M and WP Engine is worth $400M, you&#8217;re now breathlessly quoting WPE&#8217;s PR slop claiming the WP ecosystem is $600B (it&#8217;s not, probably closer to $10-15B/yr) and then immediately pivot into saying that Automattic gets the biggest piece of that pie, something clearly not true based on our revenue versus everyone else in the ecosystem.</p>
  1497.  
  1498.  
  1499.  
  1500. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1501. <p>Mullenweg had&nbsp;<a href="http://photomatt/">another complaint</a>: WP Engine was violating Automattic’s trademark rights over the WordPress name, based on the fact that WP Engine freely used the abbreviation “WP,” and that “WordPress” appeared throughout their website.</p>
  1502. </blockquote>
  1503.  
  1504.  
  1505.  
  1506. <p><strong>I&#8217;m quoting this just to point out how bad the quality control is at Inc Magazine</strong>: the link for &#8220;another complaint&#8221; doesn&#8217;t work, it has the code <code>&lt;a href="http://@photomatt"&gt;another complaint&lt;/a&gt;</code>. They can&#8217;t even make sure all the links work in their published articles! I presume this was trying to refer to a tweet of mine, but no one reading the article will be able to know what it was. I would like to know, because our trademark complaint had nothing to do with &#8220;WP&#8221;, it was about the use of &#8220;WordPress&#8221; and &#8220;WooCommerce.&#8221;</p>
  1507.  
  1508.  
  1509.  
  1510. <p>Inc Magazine already runs on WordPress, though they use a needlessly complex and expensive custom front-end instead of just serving the site natively. Maybe in their next re-architecture they can take the money they save by getting rid of their lame headless implementation and put it towards fact-checkers and better editors.</p>
  1511.  
  1512.  
  1513.  
  1514. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1515. <p>Whenever Mullenweg is accused of being too controlling, he often points out he turned over control of WordPress software to a non-profit called the WordPress Foundation. He created the Foundation in 2010, and did indeed assign it all WordPress rights.</p>
  1516. </blockquote>
  1517.  
  1518.  
  1519.  
  1520. <p>I have never said that, and it&#8217;s not even factually accurate or possible for me to assign all WordPress rights.</p>
  1521.  
  1522.  
  1523.  
  1524. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1525. <p>But few people who have looked at the Foundation take its independence seriously. Mullenweg is chairman of its three-person board. Little is known about the other two members, and their names don’t appear anywhere on the Foundation’s website.</p>
  1526. </blockquote>
  1527.  
  1528.  
  1529.  
  1530. <p>The names of the other directors do appear on the Foundation website, <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/news/2024/meeting-minutes/">for example in this October 17 blog post</a> that says &#8220;WordPress Foundation Directors: Mark Ghosh, Matt Mullenweg, and Chele Chiavacci Farley.&#8221; </p>
  1531.  
  1532.  
  1533.  
  1534. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="604" height="906" data-attachment-id="132700" data-permalink="https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?fit=1024%2C1536&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1024,1536" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?fit=493%2C740&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?fit=604%2C906&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc-683x1024.webp?resize=604%2C906&#038;quality=80&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-132700" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?resize=683%2C1024&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 683w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?resize=493%2C740&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 493w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?resize=140%2C210&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 140w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?resize=768%2C1152&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?resize=307%2C460&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 307w, https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2024/12/inc-matt-mullenweg-wordpress-inline-inc.webp?w=1024&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px" /></figure>
  1535.  
  1536.  
  1537.  
  1538. <p>Now the article includes a picture of me at the computer, and out of the hundreds they have with my eyes open, they for some reason chose this one where my eyes were closed.</p>
  1539.  
  1540.  
  1541.  
  1542. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1543. <p>Like most theme vendors in the early years of that small sub-industry, it sold its themes under a proprietary—that is, non-open-source—license. But in 2008, Mullenweg cleaned house of all theme vendors who refused to switch to an open-source license. Only Thesis held out.</p>
  1544.  
  1545.  
  1546.  
  1547. <p>In response, Mullenweg offered to pay Thesis users to switch. He also reportedly paid $100,000 to acquire the domain name “Thesis.com” from a third party and had the name direct to an Automattic blog about theme design.</p>
  1548. </blockquote>
  1549.  
  1550.  
  1551.  
  1552. <p>Themes in WordPress are linked and integrated in a way that the GPL license applies to the PHP code, so if you publish and distribute a WordPress theme the PHP needs to be GPL. There has only been one person to dispute this, Chris Pearson from Thesis, no lawyer or the thousands of successful themes since then have tried to violate the GPL license. Chris is a clown, and the only source for saying that 100k was paid for the Thesis.com domain, I will say now that the domain was bought for a small fraction of that. Again, no fact checking or citing sources.</p>
  1553.  
  1554.  
  1555.  
  1556. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1557. <p>Thesis eventually gave in. But many in the WordPress community were put off by what they saw as Mullenweg’s vindictive, bullying behavior, and some eventually even left WordPress for other publishing platforms because of it.&nbsp;</p>
  1558. </blockquote>
  1559.  
  1560.  
  1561.  
  1562. <p>It&#8217;s funny to talk about the last big controversy in WordPress world being in 2010, I think it actually speaks to our stability. Since 2010, when &#8220;some eventually even left WordPress&#8221;, the platform has grown market share from under 10% to 43%. I think in a few years we&#8217;ll look back at WP Engine as inconsequential as Thesis, and Heather Brunner as credible as Chris Pearson.</p>
  1563.  
  1564.  
  1565.  
  1566. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1567. <p>Some are leaving WordPress entirely. Cernak of Northstar Digital Design has already decided to abandon WordPress (and WP Engine) for a much smaller, rival website-development platform called WebFlow. “I can’t depend on WordPress if Matt is going to make changes based on whatever he happens to want at the time,” he says.</p>
  1568. </blockquote>
  1569.  
  1570.  
  1571.  
  1572. <p>Wow, they found one person leaving WordPress for Webflow. Is that cherry-picked, or a trend? Again, <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/comparison/cm-webflow,cm-wordpress">you can go to third parties like W3Techs to see the relative market share</a>, and see that we&#8217;ve gained share since September and Webflow has been flat. <a href="https://northstardigital.design/">Northstar Digital Design</a> &#8220;is a creative agency specializing in digital marketing, blockchain technology, web development &amp; design&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/NorthStar_DD">with 5 followers on X/Twitter</a>. Their website lists no clients or portfolio. It&#8217;s unclear how many sites they are responsible for. But this Cernak character is quoted like he&#8217;s some authority or representative of a trend. Maybe he&#8217;s more credible on blockchain technology.</p>
  1573.  
  1574.  
  1575.  
  1576. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1577. <p>When I ask Mullenweg if he is feeling traumatized by the pervasive criticism, he tells me about the time he was playing in a Little League game when his teammates saw, through his thin white pants, that his underwear had cartoon characters on them. “They started laughing. That was traumatic for me. But now it’s a funny story,” he recalls. “Tragedy plus time equals comedy.”&nbsp;</p>
  1578.  
  1579.  
  1580.  
  1581. <p>Whether or not anything about the current crisis ever seems funny to him, he insists it will all end up as a beneficial experience. “The best things come out of adversity and clashes,” he says. “We’re going to come out of it way stronger.”</p>
  1582. </blockquote>
  1583.  
  1584.  
  1585.  
  1586. <p>This is a true story, I was very open and vulnerable with the journalist.</p>
  1587.  
  1588.  
  1589.  
  1590. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1591. <p>In a prepared statement emailed to&nbsp;<em>Inc.</em>, a WP Engine spokesperson said that “we are encouraged by and supportive of the ideas we see being shared by leaders within WordPress and adjacent open-source platforms to reimagine how key elements of the WordPress ecosystem are governed and funded….” It is a clear plug for pushing Mullenweg out of his BDFLship.</p>
  1592. </blockquote>
  1593.  
  1594.  
  1595.  
  1596. <p>Oh finally, <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/09/missing-spokespeople/">WP Engine talks to the press after months of avoiding interviews and conferences</a>. This is a great statement given WP Engine can barely fund and govern itself, much less the broader WordPress ecosystem, and I doubt the broader WordPress hosting ecosystem would prefer Silver Lake and WP Engine holding the reins of WordPress.</p>
  1597.  
  1598.  
  1599.  
  1600. <p>There&#8217;s more slop in the article but I&#8217;m not going to go through everything. I know a lot of entrepreneurs follow me and I don&#8217;t want your takeaway to be &#8220;don&#8217;t talk to journalists&#8221; or &#8220;don&#8217;t engage with mainstream media.&#8221; When Inc reached out I thought back to when I was a teenager reading Inc and Fast Company, and how those magazines were inspiring to me, I didn&#8217;t think as much about their decline in editorial quality and relevance. I read David&#8217;s other pieces and thought he had some great insight, but this is a good example of where a decent journalist can&#8217;t overcome a crappy editor and quality control. I probably wouldn&#8217;t be excited to work with Inc Magazine again while <a href="https://x.com/mikehofman">Mike Hofman</a> is in charge as editor-in-chief, he&#8217;s clearly overseeing a declining brand. But I will continue to engage with other media, and blog, and tweet, and tell my story directly.</p>
  1601.  
  1602.  
  1603.  
  1604. <p>If you&#8217;d like to see how much editorial bias can shape a story, I will say that Inc <a href="https://www.inc.com/issie-lapowsky/why-stacy-brown-philpot-is-your-favorite-board-members-favorite-board-member/91022175">just published a great profile, with flattering photos, of my good friend Stacy Brown-Philpot</a>. When an editor wants to make you look good, they can! If they decide they want to drag you, they can too. Everything in my interactions with David and Inc made it seem this would be a positive piece, so be careful. <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/uh-cover/">I&#8217;ll also contrast it with the excellent cover article University of Houston published a few days ago</a>.</p>
  1605.  
  1606.  
  1607.  
  1608. <p>We&#8217;ll see if Inc Magazine has any journalistic integrity by their updates to the article.</p>
  1609. ]]></content>
  1611. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/#comments" thr:count="16" />
  1612. <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/feed/atom/" thr:count="16" />
  1613. <thr:total>16</thr:total>
  1614. </entry>
  1615. <entry>
  1616. <author>
  1617. <name>Matt</name>
  1618. <uri>http://ma.tt/</uri>
  1619. </author>
  1620.  
  1621. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Falling Snow]]></title>
  1622. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/falling-snow/" />
  1623.  
  1624. <id>https://ma.tt/?p=132584</id>
  1625. <updated>2024-12-18T20:25:12Z</updated>
  1626. <published>2024-12-18T20:25:12Z</published>
  1627. <category scheme="https://ma.tt" term="WordPress" />
  1628. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[The talented Felix Arntz has given an incredible Christmas gift to the WordPress community with his fast, light, and accessible Snow Fall plugin, which is live on this site and you can install on yours. I hope everyone is having a happy holidays! Search for &#8220;snow fall&#8221; in your plugin dashboard and install his version, &#8230; <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/falling-snow/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Falling Snow</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></summary>
  1629.  
  1630. <content type="html" xml:base="https://ma.tt/2024/12/falling-snow/"><![CDATA[
  1631. <p>The talented <a href="https://felix-arntz.me/">Felix Arntz</a> has given an incredible Christmas gift to the WordPress community with his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/snow-fall/">fast, light, and accessible Snow Fall plugin</a>, which is live on this site and you can install on yours. I hope everyone is having a happy holidays! Search for &#8220;snow fall&#8221; in your plugin dashboard and install his version, make your site cozy for the holidays.</p>
  1632. ]]></content>
  1634. <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://ma.tt/2024/12/falling-snow/#comments" thr:count="2" />
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  1636. <thr:total>2</thr:total>
  1637. </entry>
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