The Internet has removed scarcity, meaning business models based on controlling distribution are no longer viable. Instead, the key to success is controlling access to the best customers — and that means being the best.
Read all of Ben Thompson’s Funnel Framework.
Writing for the New Yorker (!) Om Malik compares and contrasts Apple and Google.
In light of the Pope’s encyclical last week and the US election season ramping up, there has been some great writing on the environment lately. Check these three articles out.
I’ll be doing a town hall Q&A at WordCamp Europe in Seville tomorrow (Friday) around 2 PM. I’m looking forward to catching up with the WordPress community from around Europe and the world, especially ma.tt readers!
“In recent years, Apple’s strategy towards the web can most charitably be described as ‘benevolent neglect.'” Nolan Lawson throws the gauntlet down by asking Is Safari the new Internet Explorer?
Trevor Noah, the new host of the Daily Show, was on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee show, and it was quite interesting. I really love this show, even when it’s slow you get some fun thoughts. I would embed the video but that doesn’t seem possible.
“Customer support, when done well, is a career.” Automattic’s support lead Andrew Spittle on customer success vs customer support.
I had great BBQ in San Francisco last week at a new place called Smokestack. The brisket was on-point, and competitive with anything I’ve had in Texas. This review in the SF Chronicle covers things pretty well, if you’re hankering for some great Southern food in SF this is the place to check out.
One of the areas where Automattic and its products like WordPress.com have the most room for growth is in the area of marketing. It’s also an area our competitors are spending heavily in, with Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Web.com, and to a lesser extent EIG and Godaddy, spending over $350M this year in advertising. (Of course marketing is much more than just advertising, but their spend is still significant.) We’re hiring for a number of positions in this area to build up our team, including a CMO, a performance marketing specialist, marketing-oriented designer, and a role focused on events. If you know of anyone who would be ideal for these roles, or if that person is you, please read about Automattic on that page and follow the guidelines for the role to apply.
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Burgers and fries have nearly killed our ancestral microbiome.
I’ve loved reading microbiome stuff lately, here’s a good one in Nautilus, How the Western Diet Has Derailed Our Evolution. For an older look from the New Yorker, check out this older one about the fascinating journey of helicobacter pylori.
Dave Winer has a great blog post, Your human-size life which covers wealth, success, happiness, and Peter Thiel. Hat tip: Toni.
Bedeviled,
human, your plight, in waking, is to choose from the wordsthat even now sleep on your tongue, and to know that tangled
among them and terribly new is the sentence that could change your life.
From The Meadow by Marie Howe.
Later today (3:45pm ET) I’ll deliver my annual State of the Word speech, which I’m very excited about. If you’d like to watch remotely, this year live stream tickets are free and you can tune in here.
My colleague Sara has reached one million words posted to our internal sites, and has some tips for distributed work and communication. I just checked my stats, I’m only at 867k.
Nautilus Magazine has an interesting look at the question of Is Matter Conscious? Worth reading to learn what the word "panpsychism" means. Hat tip: John Vechey.
As you prepare for Halloween you'll enjoy this Drake parody, especially if you're familiar with his catalog.