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by senkora 639 days ago
Why do otherwise smart people start feuds like this?

I think that most people on HN would agree that 1) the most likely outcome of this feud is negative for Automattic and 2) Matt should have reasonably known that from the start.

Is it some consequence of a passionate founder having the influence to choose emotions over business sense?
2 comments
spiderfarmer 639 days ago
My guess: Most people are motivated by money and power. Matt probably has enough money and judging by the fact he's still running Automattic, he clearly loves to have power. But now a big VC is investing in WP Engine and he's afraid he'll lose control over the direction of Wordpress.
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ncr100 639 days ago
To reply to the rhetorical, clearly "smart" does not mean "wise". Trending towards "stupid", to my thinking.

And "passion" leading to "boldness & assertiveness" is virtuous, however this behavior -- documented in WP Engine's PDF complaint -- is unnecessarily overblown + harmful to the public good/business health in my eyes.

Rest is me blathering, ignore if you don't want it:

Ego is clearly, to my mind, overriding analytical fidelity on the part of that Auto-matt business. In 2022 the CEO talked about a different company in the Word Press universe as "parasitic". https://masterwp.com/mullenweg-godaddy-is-an-existential-thr... It is not uncommon to see over-reach by CEOs, which is part of the job though does often fail to pass the smell test. And, sorry to those CEOs (especially those whom I know) who are Not sociopathic, buuuuut it's not uncommon for sociopathy to be present in CEO behavior. Boldness and assertiveness are great, don't get me wrong, but the specific terminology used by MM about WP Engine, (and this is IMHO), is nutso, plus the wacky-pants lecture he gave during a social-networking conference about WP etc, according to the WP Engine complaint, was just stupid.

WP Engine seems like a legit company doing legit things in a legit manner. Their legal brief, yesterday, laid out compelling evidence of unfair (IANAL) illegal behavior by Mattttttttttt and his Auto MATTTTTTT ic company. [Talk about "naming a company after myself is right".]

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