Matt Mullenweg’s “the way I work” Interview: Filipinos treated him like a rock star
Check out this interview by Inc. Magazine with Automattic chief Matt Mullenweg on how he spends his day working on WordPress. That includes working from home (they’re a virtual company but have an office in San Francisco), tuning out all distractions through music, and traveling around the world—mostly to attend WordCamps.
He then shares a neat little anecdote about his trip to the Philippines last year (check it out on page 2):
In the Philippines, people treated me like I was a rock star. After the camp was over, I spent two hours taking pictures and signing autographs. People were like, “Will you sign my laptop?” “Will you sign my badge?” “Will you sign my body part?”
(Yes, we love you that much, Matt!) It’s nice to know us Filipinos have made that much of an impression on him. But really, it’s also about how far WordPress has come—now on its 6th anniversary, this publishing platform is absolutely huge and adored by everyone.
For WordPress, we’re trying to set up a community that will be around 10 to 30 years from now, that’s independent from the whims of the market. I feel like the nonelected benevolent dictator: It’s my responsibility to meet as many users as possible and direct the software project in a way that reflects their interests. Last year, I probably met 2,000 or 3,000 people who make their living from WordPress. We want to be like Google, eBay, Amazon — they all enable other people to make far more money than they capture. And that’s ultimately what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to create a movement.
My mom started a blog a couple of weeks ago. Six years into this, and we finally made it easy enough for my mom to use.
Here’s to 6 years more!
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