The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work is a behind-the-scenes look at our company, Automattic, and its unique culture—it comes out today, and I really think you should read it.

It’s packed with great lessons for your business, but my recommendation is more self-serving: after nearly 3 years working at Automattic, I’d really prefer to never again have to explain that: 1) yes, we are a real company making real (and successful) products, and 2) despite working from home most days, I actually do wear pants (and I’m pretty sure my coworkers do too).

50 million websites, or twenty percent of the entire web, use WordPress software. The force behind WordPress.com is a convention-defying company called Automattic, Inc., whose 190 employees work from anywhere in the world they wish, barely use email, and launch improvements to their products dozens of times a day.

With a fraction of the resources of Google, Amazon, or Facebook, they have a similar impact on the future of the Internet. How is this possible? What’s different about how they work, and what can other companies learn from their methods?

To find out, former Microsoft veteran Scott Berkun worked as a manager at WordPress.com, leading a team of young programmers developing new ideas. The Year Without Pants shares the secrets of WordPress.com’s phenomenal success from the inside. Berkun’s story reveals insights on creativity, productivity, and leadership from the kind of workplace that might be in everyone’s future.