Thread by @grahamkmann

The @farnamstreet podcast between @photomatt and @ShaneAParrish was excellent.

Here are 40+ things I learned, quotes and highlights👇

When it comes to starting companies, the market trumps everything else.

Communities are a competitive advantage.

People working on something because they love it will win in the long run.

The open-source philosophy is one of the most powerful in our lifetime.

Our lives are now full of black boxes.

Who we date, what news we read, the cars we drive.

We are losing agency and sovereignty of ourselves.

Being able to see how something works is valuable.

But only if you can change it.

That's why open-source wins.

Open-source comes to dominate every market over time.

Focus on growing the whole pie, not just your slice.

Automattic is a holding company, kind of like Berkshire Hathaway, but they do try to take advantage of economies of scale, advantages like hiring and infrastructure, and other things which overlap.

Influencing culture is more about cross-pollination than top-down.

Mix with other departments and teams and characteristics will transfer naturally.

Environment is the most important factor in how people perform.

The best framework for motivating people is from @DanielPink: mastery, autonomy and purpose.

Mastery is being challenged and getting good at what you do.

Autonomy is the freedom to be able to do it.

Purpose is working towards something bigger than yourself.

At Wordpress, they're seeking to democratize the web, and preserve it for generations to come.

Automattic is distributed, not remote.

Language matters, and no one wants to be remote.

They prefer to think of it as antifragile, distributed network made up of a bunch of equally-weighted nodes.

The value of distributed work is that it gives people flexibility.

There's no counting of hours; the results are all that matters.

@photomatt's excellent framework on the tiers of distributed work: ma.tt/2020/04/five-l…

If you're able to design an organization where people can pop in and out in whatever time zone, and fully contribute and move goals forward, then you unlock access to the world's talent.

Asynchronous communications can be far richer than synchronous because you can unlock the power of the introverts in your company, and give people time to think in a detailed way.

At Automattic, decisions are made by creating a thread, and allowing people to weigh in on the thread.

They can take their time, and the responses are richer as a result.

It also serves as a decision journal.

A manager writes a tl;dr version at the end.

The biggest downside of distributed work?

Not getting to spend as much time with colleagues.

When you love your work and who you work with, you value that time.

In normal times, people get together 3-4 times per year.

One company gathering, and then a few others with your team of 5-10 people.

In the current climate, people are working harder than ever, but feeling less productive.

They're feeling more strain on their hours.

This also puts strains on relationships.

They become transactional, and there's less time building trust.

We should think more about trust.

If we spent time thinking about trust and investing in it, we could have much richer relationships despite being apart.

The start of building those relationships is bringing it into the open:

"Hey, we haven't seen each other in a while, can we chat soon?"

"Hey, we used to do these brainstorm sessions that were valuable—how can we replicate that?"

The best decisions have a deadline associated and a summary.

The best way to avoid information overload: have clear expecations.

"I won't reply to most Slack messages. If it's important, we can chat on the phone."

The biggest problem with distributed work is encouraging time away from the keyboard, not more time at it.

Matt's current time breakdown: one third people, one third product, one third for the emergency of the week.

Automattic is designed to be a fractal organization.

As you zoom in or out, the structure is similar.

The hardest point for a team or company is going through the 20-50 person range.

Communication and natural collaboration breaks down.

Too much is going on to follow all of it.

You're also trying to onboard people and bring them up to speed on the institutional knowledge.

@photomatt "The number one thing that motivates me is the the quality of the care, compassion, the kindness intelligence of my colleagues. And I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world to work with the people I do."

Book recommendation: Non-Violent Communication.

One of the areas Matt is investing in: training and listening to his body as well as his mind.

"Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I'd like to see you living in better conditions."—Hafiz

Mental models are like music.

There are 12 notes, but with them, you can make millions of combinations.

If you know them really well, you can improvise.

Open source creates the opposite of the tragedy of the commons.

Instead of something ruined by people operating in their own interest, people operate for the greater good.

It's possible because the internet has economics of abundance instead of economics of scarcity.

You can listen to the full episode here: fs.blog/knowledge-proj…