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

" The Year Without Pants is one the most original and important books about what work is really like, and what it takes to do it well, that has ever been written." — Robert Sutton , professor, Stanford University, and author, New York Times bestsellers The No Asshole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss "The underlying concept—an ′expert′ putting himself on the line as an employee— is just fantastic. And then the book gets better from there! I wish I had the balls to do this." — GUY KAWASAKI , author, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, and former chief evangelist, Apple "If you want to think differently about entrepreneurship, management, or life in general, read this book." — Tim Ferriss , author, New York Times bestseller The 4–Hour Workweek "With humor and heart, Scott has written a letter from the future about a new kind of workplace that wasn′t possible before the internet. His insights will make you laugh, think, and ask all the right questions about your own company′s culture." — Gina Trapani , founding editor, Lifehacker "The future of work is distributed. Automattic wrote the script. Time for rest of us to read it." — Om Malik , founder, GigaOM "Some say the world of work is changing, but they′re wrong. The world has already changed! Read The Year Without Pants to catch up." — Chris Guillebeau , author, New York Times bestseller The $100 Startup "You′ll be surprised, shocked, delighted, thrilled, and inspired by how WordPress.com gets work done. I was!" — Joe Belfiore , corporate vice president, Microsoft "Most talk of the future of work is just speculation, but Berkun has actually worked there. The Year Without Pants is a brilliant, honest, and funny insider′s story of life at a great company." — Eric Ries , author, New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup

What You Need to Know 1 1 The Hotel Electra 3 2 The First Day 9 3 Tickets for Caturday 20 4 Culture Always Wins 28 5 Your Meetings Will Be Typed 41 6 The Bazaar at the Cathedral 53 7 The Big Talk 64 8 The Future of Work, Part 1 73 9 Working the Team 82 10 How to Start a Fire 95 11 Real Artists Ship 106 12 Athens Lost and Found 118 13 Double Down 129 14 There Can Be Only One 138 15 The Future of Work, Part 2 148 16 Innovation and Friction 161 17 The Intense Debate 166 18 Follow the Sun 171 19 The Rise of Jetpack 175 20 Show Me the Money 186 21 Portland and the Collective 195 22 The Bureau of Socialization 211 23 Exit Through Hawaii 223 24 The Future of Work, Part 3 230 Epilogue: Where Are They Now? 234 Notes 236 Annotated Bibliography 241 Acknowledgments 243 About the Author 245 Index 247

Scott Berkun is the author of four popular books: Making Things Happen, The Myths of Innovation, Confessions of a Public Speaker, and Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds. His work as a writer and speaker has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Wired, the Economist, Fast Company, and Forbes and on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, National Public Radio, and other media. His many popular essays and entertaining lectures can be found for free on his blog at www.scottberkun.com, and he tweets at @berkun. (Berkun may or may not be wearing pants in this photo.)