Automattic
As of September 1st, I have taken a leave of absence from Caltech. Actually, they technically call it a sabbatical; I’m totally on sabbatical.
As of September 4th, I am an Automattic “Engineer” (though I sometimes call myself “Consul General of Los Angeles” when I think no one can hear me).
I know what you’re all thinking (“Wait, he’s working at home now? Where will MDA go when he’s slacking off…?”). Allow me to respond to your aggregate thoughts by means of a friendly question and answer section.
- What’s Automattic and why can’t it spell?
- It’s a company devoted to making things simple on the web. Everyone communicates in some form or another; we want to give people the tools to make that communication easy. We can’t spell because we all grew up with spellcheck making our communication easy.
- Hang on, didn’t you start life out as an Engineer?
- Yes: Chemical Engineer -> Chemist -> Physicist -> Complexity Theorist -> Engineer (if I may play fast and loose with the labels). I find the whole cyclic nature of that chain a bit disturbing.
- What about Caltech? Grad school not your thing?
- Grad school is awesome. Yes, things have been a little slow lately, but I still think it’s all very interesting. Maybe this is even better, though. Besides, now I can say I was part of the web when it was still 2.0. (Plus, I wasn’t slated to graduate until 2017, anyway.)
- So if you’re not working on amplifying QMA(k) anymore, what will you be doing?
- A list parties. Casual disregard for social mores. First class flights from LAX to ONT. You know, typical engineering stuff.
- A list parties?
- OK, so I’ll be working on bbPress and other Automattic projects. But I will be cultivating a casual disregard for the term “Web 2.0”, if that helps.
- Sounds like you’re excited. You do realize this all sounds very 1990’s.
- You bet I’m excited. Good People. Good Products. It’s going to be a great year. And, hey, no 90’s bashing. Those were the formative days of my youth!
With your addition to the team Automattic team becomes more or less complex?
Adding any number n>2 of Mikes certainly is no more complex than adding just 2 Mike’s, but I can’t tell if having 2 is more complex than one. I also can’t rule out the possibility that Mike could be replaced by a deterministic sequential machine running for an amount of time that is polynomial in the size of the input.
Welcome aboard :)
[…] Mike Adams (mdawaffe) has joined the Automattic team. « Job Interview […]
Congratulations, and I hope you have a LOT of fun :)
This is so good – huge congrats!
That’s an awesome step for you! Glad you decided to join the Automattic team. I wish you the best with them :)
Congrats Consul General of LA ;)
Hope it works out better than you expected.
All hail the consul! Congrats!
Finally, some love for bbpress! Can’t wait to see where you take it.
I’ve been watching a flood of updates to bbPress, am really happy that it’s got great (now including you) people behind it.
Just spoke to you on day three, seems things are going well. Hope that continues!
Just one question: you mention the perk of
So which one would you start at? Since they both seem to be about a 40 minute drive from where you live?
Wow, the team is growing. Business is good. :)
Thanks everyone for the welcomes and well wishings.
Greg, did some research did we?
Paul, my helicopter pilot would decide for me.
Yo! Mikey (as we say in the place of “welcome” on the coast).
It’s good to see the staff growing and growing at the best blogging place on earth and … the sky is the limit what with all those geeks around and about….ooooowww baby … be still my beating heart.;)
And don’t worry I won’t rat you out to wank right away, unless the thumbs screws come out *lol*
signed,
just another cheeky wp bitch chick ;)
Hey! It’s the syrupy waffle! Congrats. :)
[…] Mike Adams joins Automattic to work on bbPress. […]
Wow MDA, you just got your own podcast segment! You’re famous!
Pity he mispronounced “mdawaffe”.
[…] 自 Mike Adams (mdawaffe) 加入 Automattic 後，bbPress 的開發再度展開，最新是進展是簡化 WordPress 和 bbPress 的整合。 […]
[…] 自 Mike Adams (mdawaffe) 加入主力開發 bbPress 後，bbPress 的開發由零再次加速，如果有跟 SVN 版本的話，差不多每日都有改動，現在 bbPress 0.72 正式推出。 […]
[…] looks like Jeffro was right, mdawaffe will be playing a bigger role in bbPress. […]