When Eric joined us at Automattic in 2014, I was lucky enough to be his first team lead. At first I didn’t know what to make of this guy. Super young (even younger than most of the rest of us at the time!), always optimistic, seemed to be really sharp and willing to give anything a try. Pretty quickly, I realized that wasn’t just because he was new. That’s who Eric was. Optimistic. Sharp. Willing to try anything. Eric was in Wichita Falls, Texas. A place that I’d never heard of, that he described as “the middle of nowhere, Texas”.…