Quiet here, I know. Come talk to me here: Blog: jesse.blog BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/jesse.blog LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jesserfriedm… PocketCasts: pca.st/podcast/675bbdb0-cb9f… Instagram: instagram.com/jessefriedman Facebook: facebook.com/wpandweb

Couldn't be happier to be a WP Cloud partner :) A world class WP hosting platform is a big part of our growth story 💪

In this episode of the Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday interviews Will Guidara, author of Unreasonable Hospitality — read it if you haven’t. I paused when Guidara said: “Adversity is a terrible thing to waste.” It’s a well-formed phrase for an idea I’ve been turning over for a while. You see, lately, I’ve been thinking about empathy differently. We tend to treat it as the ability to feel what someone else is feeling. But I think it’s more than that — it’s putting yourself in a position to metabolize those feelings with them. Together, not just beside them. jesse.blog/notes/adversity-i…

Most art forms are shaped by the artist in sight of the whole. Step back from a large sculpture or a massive mural. Compose a song and play it back in minutes. But a book? You can never step far enough back to take it all in at once. Long-form storytelling may be the only art you make half-blind. jesse.blog/notes/half-blind/

This was just merged into Gutenberg trunk, and it’s a much bigger deal than it looks 👇 WordPress is getting a native UI to create custom post types. No code. No plugins. Just: Settings → Post Types → Add That might sound small… it’s not. Custom post types go from “developer feature” → “everyday user feature” Which means: • Better structured content from day one • Easier onboarding • Less plugin dependency • A cleaner foundation for AI to understand your site And this is just the start. Post types → taxonomies → …you can probably guess what comes next You can see where this is heading… WordPress is becoming a powerful content modelling system 👀

Hilary Mason is joining me on stage next Wednesday in NYC. Doors at 5:30, conversation at 6:00. Drinks, food, and a room full of fascinating people (including me!) linkedin.com/feed/update/urn…

New York City, we are so back! 🗽 Mark your calendars for the next dev/ai/nyc, our monthly gathering exploring the intersection of open source and applied AI. This time around, we have a fireside chat from @hmason, CEO of @playhiddendoor, and @Professor, head of @wpcloudofficial. Don’t miss it!

People are loving the printed & mailed version of my blog (the photo below is from a friend and subscriber). If you're interested in slowing down with some essays on leadership, systems, and the open web you can subscribe here: jesse.blog/mail

I fought for my Island in a 250 Player Minecraft Civilization - a film by my daughter! piped.video/3uXFDlHy2eA?si=YG2h…

There's something that gets lost between a screen and your eye. Not the idea — the ideas make it through fine — but something else. The weight of it. The sense that someone actually made something. So I'm trying something different. I write essays. Long ones, about cities and open source and the way technology changes how we move through the world. And if you go to jesse.blog/mail, you can subscribe and add your mailing address — and I'll send them to you. On paper. With a stamp. You can read it on your porch. Fold it up. Spill coffee on it. And if something moves you — a thought, a pushback, a story of your own — you can write me back. And I'll write back. It's slower. That's sort of the point. jesse.blog/mail

Remember when I took that three-month sabbatical and wrote more than 100,000 words? My essay On The Sacred Act of Writing: Distraction Free is still one of my favorite reflections. If you haven’t read it yet (or want a refresher): jesse.blog/essays/on-the-sac…

One command. Zero Docker. Full WordPress. npx @wordpress/env start --runtime=playground ⚡️wp-env now supports WordPress Playground as an experimental runtime. Spin up a local WordPress environment in seconds, no containers required.

In WP Legends Episode 80, @Professor of @automattic shares how @wpcloudofficial powers fast WordPress experiences and its global growth plans. He also talks about real-time failover, remote culture, and work-life balance at Automattic. piped.video/rAJHAbrAxLY

. @Apple this alert is now as frequent and annoying as swamp mosquitos on a hot summer night. And the worst part is that no one even knows what it means. The words make sense, but the actual meaning, the outcome, the implications are completely foreign to most people.

High tech doesn’t mean high quality. A frozen Uber, a looping Waymo, and one taxi ride made that painfully clear. We’re losing something essential when our systems become high tech, low touch. Full story: jesse.blog/stories/high-tech…

.@dhh, @photomatt and @Dries are right: Precision of language matters. Freedom of speech and the ability to resist injustice now depend on the open web—and the open web only works if “open source” actually means something. Being lax about that definition quietly erodes its role as a safeguard.

It’s been three weeks since I shared On The Sacred Act of Writing: Distraction Free. For anyone who skipped it, here’s a reminder link: jesse.blog/essays/on-the-sac… Revisit the piece about building the writing habit, overcoming distractions, and entering true flow.

Most teams don’t fail from big disruptions—they drift from subtle drag. Half-knot inefficiencies that steal momentum without being seen. Here’s how to lead a team that sails clean in 2026: jesse.blog/9

@Professor, Head of @wpcloudofficial at @automattic , talks Gutenberg, the evolution from WYSIWYG to pattern libraries, and the future of AI driven site building. Full episode out Dec 16 at 9 AM ET.

Our very own @photomatt joined the @tbpn crew to close out #StateOfTheWord yesterday. They talked about WordPress 6.9, open source, @beeper, and how AI is changing the web. Did you miss it? Check it out now. piped.video/watch?v=eBQh57Hu…