In recent years, you could measure your social status (should you want to) (or consider it somewhat important) by the amount of birthday wishes on social media. From Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn to Instagram. Dark social also counts. Whatsapp, Discord, SMS, Signal.

But actually that’s hugely boring. I prefer what Matt Mullenweg does. The Big Kahuna of WordPress. He turns 40 and he asks only one thing. “I want you to blog.” You can add your own In the comments of this post.

And oh my, it is wonderful to browse through all these new and familiar blogs in the comments and read what’s on everyone’s mind. It feels so much like a small village, where you walk through the streets and hear the noise and feel the vibrations of life everywhere. Everyone is on their own domain, with their own voice, without moderation, without a hustle and drive to keep engagement.

Congratulations Matt, thank you for the great work you do with WordPress and your role as community evangelist for the open web.

His call is my north star for 2024 (again):

Publish a post. About anything! It can be long or short, a photo or a video, maybe a quote or a link to something you found interesting. Don’t sweat it. Just blog. Share something you created, or amplify something you enjoyed. It doesn’t take much. The act of publishing will be a gift for you and me.

Blog on!