Twenty-seven

Personal,

Today is a fun day — 2011-1-11 (not 1:11 PM anymore, I’m a slow writer) and I’m turning 27. This is the time of the year I always look back, and from last year’s resolutions I actually did pretty well. I was able to simplify a number of areas of my life, including reducing the number of computers running in my place. I bought my first apartment and remodeled it. I slowed down my eating by chewing more, a vignette that made Tim’s new Four Hour Body book. Redesigned this site. I didn’t bike at all, but walked a ton. I started exercising with a kettlebell over the summer and was pretty consistent about it until last month, with some noticeable improvements in strength and energy. Got all the old photo galleries imported going all the way to 2002.

I petered out on Farscape, and didn’t display my photography anywhere in print, so a wash there. I spent a week in the woods with Beau at Tracker camp. I joined the board of the non-profit Grist, and was able to expand charitable donations to cover more organizations than previously, including Charity: Water, FSF, Apache, Archive.org, Samasource, EFF, and GAFFTA. I had a tweet go viral and end up on Time and CBS (I still need to blog about that), and a blog post about shipping go viral and get over a hundred thousand visitors. (With an interesting traffic pattern too — lots of Twitter and Facebook like you would expect, but 92% of the traffic from the long tail or blogs like Daring Fireball.)

Speaking of launches, was lucky to hit all the big ones I had planned in the beginning of the year in that abbreviation-coded list: VaultPress, new Akismet, mobile WordPress apps for every platform, Ma.tt themes, Audrey Capital, WordPress Foundation. Also hired 28 new Automatticians, added 7.2 million blogs to WP.com, and had 38 million downloads from WordPress.org.

This year, along lines of simplifying, I have six main goals:

  • Increase the release frequency of core WordPress, I think we can hit our goal of three major releases this year. (Only did one last year — 3.0.)
  • Keep reading the New Yorker every week, and hopefully work in a few more books every month.
  • Launch a new jazz-related site I’ve been working on sporadically.
  • Finally upload my un-uploaded photos for 2005-2010.
  • Keep exercising regularly. (The first time I have a health-related resolution, if you believe it!)
  • Launch secret new thing, code abbreviation JP. 🙂

It’s not a resolution, but I think I’m going to spend a lot more time in Houston in 2011. As for some other stats: 208 posts here on ma.tt (up Y/Y for first time since 2007), 535 posts on my moblog, 4,456 comments, and posted 2,432 photos. The top five posts were 1.0 Is the Loneliest Number, Wildcard DNS and Sub Domains, The Headers of Twenty Ten, Change OS X Computer Name, and Sonos vs Squeezebox, but most of the traffic was to the home page. My top emailers were Toni, Rose, Paul, my Mom, and Raanan with 3,028 emails between them. I sent 10,813 emails to about 2,228 people.

According to TripIt, which I love and use constantly, I was on the road 227 days out of the year, traveling 122,066 miles across 59 cities and 17 countries.

27 is a really awkward age — I’m not young anymore but still before the looming 30. It’s inbetween. That said, I think 2011 is going to be a year where a lot of things come together and a lot of the foundations laid down in 2010 (and when I was 26) come to fruition.

This is the ninth year I’ve blogged my birthday: 19, 20, 21, 22 (this one is funny), 23, 24, 25, and 26.

88 thoughts on “Twenty-seven”

  7. Happy B-Day … Great Day right? 11-1-11 😀 Albeit you’re not 11 y.o 😛 It would be funny for someone who celebrate 11 y.o on 11-1-11 😀

    Reply

  11. Great job on last year’s resolutions and on some great ones for this year, too. I can’t wait to find out what JP is, and for what it’s worth, I’d take 27 over 32 any day. Cheers 🙂

    Reply
  12. Pingback: Matt Mullenweg at 27

  13. Happy Birthday! 😀 Hope you’re having a grand old time at #wptybee and the alcohol isn’t getting in the way of any meetings? — I didn’t think Automattic had hired 28 people throughout 2010 anyway, almost crazy figures (in a good way though right?)

    I wonder what JP could be, I’ll have to get my detective hat on. But I also wonder why bbPress never got a mention for the year ahead? You could say I’m slightly curious in fact, considering the fact you talked about integration (half-way through the year) being a vital part of the puzzle, and the vision of seeing bbPress function as a WordPress Plugin!

    Anyway, I hope you enjoy(ed) the day, and don’t let me get in the way! 😛

    Reply

      1. You spoke about goals though, and not resolutions which was why I even mentioned it in the first place! 🙂 — Going to be a pretty big thing regardless, launching/releasing something new (in theory) even if it isn’t in name?

        But would you stop getting older, I’m trying to catch up with you and it just isn’t happening! 😉

  14. Happy Birth Day Matt 🙂
    Do you’ve any plan to visit Pakistan? It’s a great country with lot of WordPress lovers.

    You are my inspiration, I’ll give you the treat of “karahi gosht” from my pocket if you are really interested 😉

    Reply
  15. Pingback: Win some WordPress swag for guessing what "JP" could be | WPCandy

  16. Happy Birthday Matt!

    Congrats on the year that was and good luck with all your goals for 2011! Love your work!

    Can’t wait to find out more about the new secret thing,’JP’. Can’t you give us a hint about it haha? Like is it a WordPress thing or the next hit from Audrey Capital? 🙂

    Reply

  18. Happy Birthday Ma.tt =)

    All the best. Looking forward to another fun year of WordPress, BuddyPress as well as bbPress.

    Reply

  19. Happy New Year, Happy Birthday and may all your fortunes bring you happiness.

    You’re doing really, really good so far so keep it up!

    Especially the kettleball.

    Reply

  21. Happy Birthday Matt! it’s too bad you can’t come to Wordcamp Indonesia 2011, but it’s Ok. Hope there’s a chance to meet and talk to you (many Indonesian Wordcamp Enthusiast feel the same 😛 )

    Wish you have wonderful moments in 27.
    Cheers

    Reply

  22. Happy Birthday Matt!!

    Congratulations, you have made great things at your 27 😀

    You always inspire me (I’m turning 27 next month)

    Reply

  27. Finally, a successful person who is not younger than I am! (Getting older is taking some getting used to.)

    Awesome socks! And what a kicky day, 1/11/11! Congratulations on your 27th spin around the sun, man! It’s a blast!

    Reply

  33. இனிய பிறந்த நாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள் (iniya pirantha naal vaalthukkal)…thats how we say “Many more happy returns of the day” in Tamil (ta) spoken mainly in Tamil Nadu, India.

    Thanks Matt for wordpress, I am now running my own business with your help 🙂

    Reply

  34. Happy birthday, Matt! As a 36er I can give you this tip if any: Do exercise. It’s unbelievable how quickly I grew fat and not even noticed it! Now I’m exercising to get back in shape, which I believe is less fun than being in shape and exercise for fun… 😉

    Anyway, thanks for WordPress and all! Make it a good year! 🙂

    Reply

  37. “Increase the release frequency of core WordPress”

    Is that really necessary? Better one solid release per year than three shoddy ones.

    Otherwise, happy birthday, and congratulations on your achievements.

    Reply

    1. Of course, the unstated assumption is that we’re improving quality of releases at the same time, and I think we would if the releases were smaller, more frequent, and more focused.

      Reply

  40. Happy 27th Matt! It’s my son’s first birthday today. Westley was born on 01-11-10. A binary palindrome. Good to know he shares a birthday with the man behind WordPress. Speaking of which, is 1 too young to have a WP blog? I don’t see an age limit on WordPress.com. Or maybe we’ll get him his own .org install. 011110.com, although we’d have to give it the subdomain moc. for it to work!
    B

    Reply

  44. Happy Birthday, Matt. For some reason, I thought you were 30!

    BTW, please include writing more essays (frequently) as one of your resolutions of this year. Have you noticed it? The essays are the best part of this blog, and please keep them coming more often!

    Destination Infinity

    Reply

  50. First time to leave a comment on your blog. Best wishes to you! I think you’vd done great job for bloggers who want to own their individual ones. 🙂

    Reply

  52. Happy birthday Matt! Being 33 I can tell you that 27 is still young, so enjoy it and leave that hint of feeling old for post 30… You have accomplished a lot and should be very proud. Congrats

    Reply

  56. “27 is a really awkward age — I’m not young anymore but still…”

    Oh Matt, please call me in 20 years so we can laugh about this perspective of yours.

    But more importantly, happy 27th.

    Reply

  57. Happy [belated] Birthday, and thank you for your contributions to our industry! You have vastly influenced the careers of many. I can speak especially for mine!

    Reply

  60. Hi Matt,

    You made my day today, you made my week, you made my last year and you will make my recent year (and the following one too >;o) I wish you all the best and all the energy to accomplish all those wonderful things for us WPaholics!

    Happy Birthday from Austria!

    Reply

  61. Matt,

    Mind sharing one philosophy you subscribe to that has contributed to your success?

    And Happy Birthday!

    Thanks,

    Brad

    Reply
  62. Pingback: 27+11 | matching tracksuits

  63. Happy birthday Matt! I’m particularly pleased with your increase in posting frequency, I wish I could do the same for my site too!

    Hope to see you in WordCamp-PH again this year.

    Reply
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  65. Happy birthday (though I’m a little slow on that…) and hope this year you make at least as good as last year – and continue tu support so many helpful organizations.

    Reply
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  70. It is inside a person’s head that says how old someone is. Stay young, live life to the fullest! This 22 year old (52 on the outside) wishes you a great birthday!

    Reply

  72. Happy belated birthday. I had a ton of fun between 27-30 and I wish you the same amount. Age is a number. I know 23 year olds who are older than me – just blah, boring, not living. Betsey Johnson, Lauren Hutton, Mary Quant, Exene,and Iris Apfel. Just never stop going forward. You’ll know if you do because you’ll find yourself listening to oldies all the time. Peace.

    Reply
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  79. Hey Matt,

    just stumbled over this article and one of your six goals:

    Finally upload my un-uploaded photos for 2005-2010.

    It would be great if you could upload your pics of WordCamp Germany. It was held on the 14th of Feb 2009 in Jena.

    Regards,
    Nick

    Reply
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