Category Archives: Automattic
Life and work at Automattic, team culture, and distributed work.
My flash talk from this year’s Automattic Grand Meetup made it online. I posted about my trip before, specifically Hoover Dam and Horseshoe Bend, this will tie them together and give you a better idea of the trip.
This year’s group picture of Automatticians who are taller than 6’2″ (1,88m). And Rose for scale.
Tallmatticians
The day before WordCamp Mumbai, India celebrated Holi, the Festival of Colors, to welcome the arrival of spring. Two other Automatticians, Prasath, Mahangu, and I were able to see a group celebrate it in a courtyard close to our hotel, so we decided to take a closer look and take a picture or two. On our way to the celebration we were stopped by a security guard unfortunately who would not let us enter, saying it was a private party and we were not allowed inside. We were a little disappointed but decided to walk around the block to see if we can find another group to take pictures.
We were almost back to our hotel when we saw a park with groups of people and took that detour. One of the groups were men who painted each others faces with India’s flag, taking pictures of one-another and having a good time. We must have looked sufficiently curious (and me unusual at 6’7″ and pale white), and as we were just about to walk past them one of the man took my hand and dragged me towards the head painter. And so this happened:
Holi in Mumbai
I just pushed code to millions of users from an airplane, in an altitude of 35,000 ft, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. SMH.
Committing from 35,000 Feet
Michael Cain and I decided to do a Cain & Obenland special at lat year’s Automattic Grand Meetup. The Grand Meetup is a one-week retreat where all of Automattic gets together and works on projects, takes classes, and hangs out together. Everyone is required to give a 4-minute flash talk, and we were able to convince Gary Pendergast to give up his slot and be the guest for that episode, giving us a total of 12 minutes for our show.
Watch it on Cain & Obenland In the Morning →
Part 1 is our news section, tailored to Automattic.
Part 2 is the interview, featuring a video of Automatticians who didn’t want to be on the show.
Part 3 is a Best of Cain & Obenland, with highlights form the shows at WordCamps Atlanta and Orange County. We spoke in the Grand Ballroom of the hotel, so in the beginning of the video we ran from the back of the room on stage, high-fiving the audience on our way, which is also why I’m so out of breath.
Enjoy!
Together with fellow Automatticians Marjorie Asturias, Brandon Kraft, and Aaron Douglas, I was invited to a panel Q&A at WordCamp San Antonio.
Inside the Actors Studio
I’m currently in Austin, TX for the inaugural team meetup of Apollo, the WordPress.org-focused team that I switched to when was created a few months ago. After five days of discussions, planning, and working on code, we took some time off today and went indoor skydiving.
It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly much less dangerous than jumping out of a flying airplane! It was exciting to be able to build on my Park City, UT experience and improve my body control in a way that I was almost able to steer myself.
Konstantin Obenland 