Tag Archives: leadership

Ma.tt: not a robot

Posted on by
Reply

Even after working for Matt Mullenweg for over four years now (my longest job!), it still totally pumps me up how forward thinking, thoughtful, and human Matt is.

From the ThemeShaper article “Premium Themes on WP.com, the backstory“:

“…it became obvious to me that we had to figure out the GPL issues first so introducing a WP.com marketplace wouldn’t inadvertently harm the WordPress community by sucking the air out of .org theme development, so I held off the revenue and success we knew this would bring to work out the GPL issues out with the community.

…

But very explicitly this is an experiment. We’re not psychic and there are many open questions: Will anyone buy these things? How will the private forums work for support, both for our users and partners? How long does it take us to review and get a new theme online? What’s the most effective price ranges? How many themes and partners should we have? How do we promote the premium themes, while balancing adding new free ones? Will any of them ever be more popular than the Smoothie? (51,109 blogs and counting.)

Go read the full article.

Could WordPress have a better BDFL?

Bad is Strong

Posted on by
Reply

Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.
Robert I. Sutton, “12 Things Good Bosses Believe“, Friday, May 28, 2010

There are interesting discussions in the comments on that article where people express finding the expression negative, and their need to focus on the good.

My interpretation of the expression is that it speaks to the power of bad to overwhelm good.

I can’t enjoy the good with bad present.

For myself, negative energy causes me to stumble. It drains me. And then I also become a conduit of the negative energy.

For me to reach higher I need to be surrounded by people feeling it, and supporting it.

Only in a positive, empathic environment, am I able to be my best.

 

Firer spinning at night, long tracers of flame, person is centered and silhouetted

"In Flames - Koh Tao june 2008" by Bart Hiddink, cc-by 2008

 

Decision Making

Posted on by
1

If you want better communication, clarify the following:

  • Who is the single person who has decision making authority for decision X
  • Who should have input into that decision
  • Who should be informed when the decision has been made

This sets everyone’s expectations for who needs to know what.  It reduces endless forwarding of fyi material on the hopes someone might need it.

Scott Berkun, “How to stop overcommunication“, Jan 21, 2010

Leslie Hawthorn, Geek Herder

Posted on by
3

I’m going to try to regular write about the people that inspire me — if I don’t do it every month then hollar at me.

Google Summer of Code has wrapped up, and while I plan to write about my experience, and the awesome work of the WordPress participants, the greatest part of it for me was experiencing a little bit of what Leslie does.

Continue reading →