The first day of a new team on a short deadline is fascinating anthropology. Everyone tries to figure everyone else out—who is talented, who has the same taste, who is easy or hard to work with, who has status—all at the same time they're trying to figure out the project itself. And at Automattic there's the wrinkle of everyone relearning how to work in the same physical place, where verbal persuasion returns to the mix of influences.
