Scott Berkun

A behind-the-scenes look at the firm behind WordPress.com and the unique work culture that contributes to its phenomenal success 50 million websites, or twenty percent of the entire web, use WordPress software. The force behind WordPress.com is a convention-defying company called Automattic, Inc., whose 120 employees work from anywhere in the world they wish, barely use email, and launch improvements to their products dozens of times a day. With a fraction of the resources of Google, Amazon, or Facebook, they have a similar impact on the future of the Internet. How is this possible? What's different about how they work, and what can other companies learn from their methods? To find out, former Microsoft veteran Scott Berkun worked as a manager at WordPress.com, leading a team of young programmers developing new ideas. The Year Without Pants shares the secrets of WordPress.com's phenomenal success from the inside. Berkun's story reveals insights on creativity, productivity, and leadership from the kind of workplace that might be in everyone's future. Offers a fast-paced and entertaining insider's account of how an amazing, powerful organization achieves impressive results Includes vital lessons about work culture and managing creativity Written by author and popular blogger Scott Berkun (scottberkun.com) The Year Without Pants shares what every organization can learn from the world-changing ideas for the future of work at the heart of Automattic's success.

WordPress.com and the Future of Work

The Year Without Pants

Jowanza Joseph

A great look at the culture at Automattic and into distributed work environments.  I learned a ton about myself and how I can work better.  I also learned that If I ever start a company I hope to make it such that I can hire workers in a distributed fashion.

JM Benedetto

The book is an easy reading with a pack of good experiences and observations about working in a chaotic and creative start up (wordpress).

Lance Willett

This book provides an insider's look at the fascinating adventure of working at a tech company running a very popular web platform. Even more interesting since I was on the inside during the author's tenure. For "laypeople" I love how the book provides a clear view of the history and culture behind Automattic and WordPress. I'll be giving copies to my family. I loved the clear treatment of remote work and distributed companies, and I think it'll have an impact on how people think about their work and workplace.

Luca Conti

I, I, I... This book is awfully ego 

The most boring useless book of 2013

Marisa Eikenberry

As a WordPress developer, I picked up this book hoping I would be able to learn more about WordPress, how it came to be, and even more about remote companies. This book gave me all of that and more.

Scott Berkun talks about how he was hired onto Team Social at WordPress as a project manager and how WordPress/Automattic operates compared to other technology and remote companies like it. One of the most interesting things I learned in the first half of the book was that every employee at WordPress spends time doing support (also known as their Happiness Team). This gives each employee the opportunity to learn more about WordPress that they wouldn't necessarily learn in training as well as to really hear the customer. This allows them to better understand the customer when they move into more of a development role. 

This book wasn't as technical as I thought it might be, mainly due to the fact that while Scott Berkun worked with developers every day he is actually a designer. It provided a different perspective for me that I wasn't expecting.

If you want to learn how large remote companies function and how remote work is changing companies as we know it or even a WordPress developer that wants to learn more about Automattic, I'd highly recommend picking up this book.

The only reason I give 4 stars is due to missing words, awkward sentences, etc. that really could've been fixed with a more thorough editing. (I did read this on Kindle so this may have had something to do with the missing words.)

Tyler Jefford

Somewhat interesting history surrounding the early days of wordpress. A lot of it is kind of long winded and doting on the founder. The best part of the book was about building teams in a distributed environment, and scaling up those teams and how to keep people happy.

The Year Without Pants WordPress.com and the Future of Work

Reviews