Give the guy a break. So much jealousy waiting to be poured out into word of hate. Says far more about you than it does about him.
Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
291–300 of 347 posts
Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
He is surely very evidently mentally ill. This is a man who, to be fair to him, has been beneficially bullish and iconoclastic in the WP community's favour for decades, as well as writing a big chunk of what was "early modern" WP. Before he came unglued. The fact that he looked, sounded, talked the way he did, was involved, put his own money where his mouth is, and was press-available to the extent he was is a lot of…
> He is surely very evidently mentally ill. I agree and upvoted your post. But can I just say that it is super-reddit to diagnose someone based on your B- undergrad psych classes. We should go back to the classics like "he went off his rocker!", or "he's totally unhinged!" or "completely delulu!" (of course the people who know, know, and they shouldn't tell you.)
"Mentally ill" is just a polite way of saying "out to lunch". I like the old phrases too - so much more color. But whatever man.
Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#293I read a lot of people saying so many things about Matt from the outside. As an Automattician for 9 years now, what I see from the inside is the best work environment I've ever been part of, and the best I've heard of compared to what colleagues describe at other big tech companies. Automattic is the most diverse and fair company I've seen, with an open and transparent culture. He might not be perfect, but all of thi…
> I'm not sure what the intentions are behind the attacks on him, but I know from my experience that they aren't fair.
The entire saga is easily discoverable through an internet search. If you care to learn, you can read about it pretty easily.
Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dont know any clinical information, but some (many, in fact) people assume mental illness when someone behaves in such a way that they believe their world view and mental model is absolute and fight to the last tooth and nail against any opposing view points (to the detriment of their own well being and others).
Well then, the founding fathers of the United States were all mentally ill. All of the greatest scientific minds that made breakthroughs in their field are mentally ill.
Sane people adapt themselves to the world. The insane ones persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves. Therefore all progress depends on the mentally abnormal.
(Parody of a famous quote about "unreasonable man".)
Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#295Who uses WP outside of legacy installs? I used to love it 15 or so years ago for side hustle work, but over time it gained weight and vulnerabilities, whack-a-mole. Plug-ins were nice, but that inlining wasn't. I don't hate PHP, the things were just clumsy and messy inside the loop and I wasn't smart enough. What's the replacement these days in case I need to set up something simple quickly? Not Square Space or Shopify, although those are good products imo.
Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dont know any clinical information, but some (many, in fact) people assume mental illness when someone behaves in such a way that they believe their world view and mental model is absolute and fight to the last tooth and nail against any opposing view points (to the detriment of their own well being and others).
Well then, the founding fathers of the United States were all mentally ill. All of the greatest scientific minds that made breakthroughs in their field are mentally ill.
> the greatest scientific minds
if one has a scientific mind, they will accept evidence which may be contrary to their personal views. If you dont, you cannot be said to have a scientific mind, let alone greatest.
> founding fathers of the United States
that may in fact, be the case, but chances are someone today of similar disposition would not be able to do the same.
Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
> WordPress is free and open source software, developed under reciprocal licensing (GPL). Hosting companies are neither legally nor morally obligated to contribute back to WordPress core. Many an old open-source project ran into this trap. Elasticsearch is one good example. Back when the old GPL era open-source projects were invented, the idea of third parties taking open-source software and just making a shitload of…
Jimmy Wales is the co-founder and president of Fandom, so I think it’s in a pretty similar position to WP.com in that regard.
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Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you would prefer a media circus and investor scrutiny when your employer's executives are fired for failures or misconduct? This is likely to cause the price of the shares to drop, including any ESPP and stock grants you and your coworkers have vested. Is the satisfaction of seeing an executive dragged through the mud worth losing a chunk of your net worth to you, no matter how much the exec deserves it? I'd rathe…
> So you would prefer a media circus and investor scrutiny when your employer's executives are fired for failures or misconduct? Yes, as a warning to the other executives. Signed, The Shareholders
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Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but I also do think that forking ACF into SCF was a net positive for the community. I think you can make the case that in principle this fork was a good idea. (Though I personally feel ACF is architecturally bad) What I think is unarguable is that the way that fork happened, including the commandeering of the slug to pervert the auto-update mechanism, was both improper and self-destructive, and was pretty indicativ…
I agree, introducing it into the core should have and could have been a constructive move way before given how important the plugin is in the WP ecosystem. When and how it happened was a hilarious plot twist nobody expected.
> I agree, introducing it into the core should have and could have been a constructive move way before given how important the plugin is in the WP ecosystem.
There was a (stalled) core Fields API effort.
The project lead abandoned core WP development ironically because of Matt's behaviour:
Re: Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am "evaluating" him as someone who feels he has come unglued in a similarly severe but less public way and recognises a fellow traveller. I'm fully entitled to say this, am I not? It's just my opinion. I am not "medicalising" it — not least because the medical profession does not recognise burnout as mental illness (because it gets it backward and assumes it is an occupational health issue). I am saying he is, to m…
> I am saying he is, to me, evidently mentally ill in the way I feel I have been mentally ill. I wouldn't accept a doctor telling me my problems are work stress. I'd find it far less acceptable if a doctor told me work stress was mental illness. You don't know anything about this person, and your case seems to rest on "I know because I've been through it" which assumes your experience is the same as a total stranger'…
> I'd find it far less acceptable if a doctor told me work stress was mental illness.
Goodness me. Sit and think about that for a while.