what a relief

I’m continually amazed in working with folks at Automattic and in the broader WordPress open source project how things that drain me, confuse me, and frustrate me instead bring others to life. While I’m quick to jump in to help move something forward, even if it’s not my forte or might drain me, I’m also learning to pay attention to what brings others to life just as much as I pay attention to what that is for me. It’s astonishing when the stars align and someone passionately sprints away with something that feels like a burden to me. It always leaves me with profound gratitude for the way we all are different and, in the most practical way, how that diversity is such a strength. In paying attention to this, particularly when working remotely, I’ve started clearly announcing when I’m doing something that must be done but that doesn’t exactly spark joy, à la Marie Kondo style. I encourage others to do the same. Of course, this is separate from work that offers a challenge and more about being intentionally with taking on challenges you can make the biggest impact on. There’s never a shortage of challenges in WordPress and I always aim to be a slow burn instead of a quick flame in making progress over many years on different problems.

Making explicit work that doesn’t spark joy never takes away from my drive to help and take on challenges but often does help me approach what I’m doing in a way that would make it even easier to hand things off if it ever came to it. Too often I think I portray this sense of “Anne’s got it” because of how seriously I can take things and it’s served me well to further that sentiment: “Anne’s got it and she’d love to hand it off to someone else if they want it”. I always aim to do work that has a solid foundation that someone else can both take over and build upon in ways I would never think of. The less ego there is in the work, the more room there is for collaboration, collective insights, and moving forward together. What a relief that we are all so different.