Knowledge Project

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways

• “Open-source is a hack that gets competitors to work together” Matt Mullenweg 
  • Humans outcompeted all other animals because they could collaborate
  • That’s why in the long run, open-source software will win every market that’s in
• With open-source software, you get the opposite of the tragedy of the commons
  • Each person working in his self-interest makes the thing better
• Working together in person gets people closer, in a way that you can’t replicate online
  • Knowing that this is an issue you have to actively invest to improve relationships with co-workers
  • Automattic’s “Secret Sauce” is to get people to get together in-person 3-4 times annually
• “Make reversible decisions quickly and irreversible ones deliberately” Tony Schneider (early business partner)
  • If it’s a reversible one you’ll learn a lot more by doing it, rather than debating it for weeks
• Matt never wanted Automattic to take over the market for WordPress paid services
  • You have to capture enough, but always less than the value you create for others
• “It’s very difficult to drive World-changing performance if it’s just for a paycheck, or just for your personal benefit, you need to be connected to something larger” Matt Mullenweg

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress, the open platform that runs most of the sites you visit and the CEO of Automattic. In this episode Matt and Shane discuss distributed work, the 5 levels of autonomous organizations, decision making, running an organization with more than 1300 people, integrating acquisitions and so much more.

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