Author: Tom (Page 212 of 430)

A Strategy For Estimates in Software

June 25, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

This is one of those posts that’s driven by my own personal experience and nothing more. I know there are tons of books, articles, blogs, and probably even tweets that would disagree with what I’m going to share, but as someone who has worked for himself for the last half a decade or so, I figure it’s something worth talking about if it’s only tangentially related to WordPress (or running your own business).

Furthermore, I rarely discuss business-related topics here. There are others – like Chris and Curtis – who do a far better job than I ever could.

Nonetheless, as someone who’s done enough project proposals and free estimates – just like most freelancers, agencies, and so on – I’m coming to the conclusion that, at some point, estimates in software aren’t enough if they are free. There’s more to it than that.

And when you’re livelihood depends on your business and your business depends on cash flow and putting effort into trying to land a project that results in no cash flow negatively affects your livelihood. Thus, there has to be more that goes into drafting a proposal that just coming up with a document to send to your potential client.

So I suppose that’s the TL;DR version of the experience(s) on which I’m going to elaborate.

The Grumpy Developer Podcast

June 24, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email about a new podcast that was starting called The Grumpy Developer. The name caught my attention so I opted to follow-up with the email and to check it out.

The Grumpy Developer

As far as podcasts go, I enjoy listening to them but I listen to very few – for me, if I have too many I end up declaring bankruptcy on my backlog more than I actually end up listening to those to which I’m subscribed.

That’s not a fun feeling, so I try to keep it to a minimum.

So anyway, I gave The Grumpy Developer podcast a listen and really enjoy what I heard through the first few podcasts.

All About Up and Running with WordPress

June 23, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Fred Meyer and David Hayes of WPShout to talk about a variety of things all related to WordPress development.

During our Google Hangout session, we talked about the following questions:

What does well-written WordPress code mean?
What’s your favorite WordPress function or API?
What tools do you find most useful in your work with WordPress?
How should people learn WordPress development?

Ultimately, it was a great discussion. Fred and David are both really nice (and incredibly smart) guys who really made the conversation worthwhile. Perhaps the coolest thing about our time together, though, is that it’s part of a larger project on which they were working targeting those who want to really get up to speed with becoming a professional WordPress developer.

But it’s far more than just interviews with myself and other developers – and for those who are interested, I also have a discount that’s applicable to any of the packages that they offer.

Getting Out of the WordPress Bubble

June 22, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Every now again, someone who’s prolific, popular, and/or who has been involved with WordPress for a significant amount of time decides to share that they are “getting out of the WordPress bubble.”

The WordPress Bubble

Generally speaking, when someone says this, they mean they’re branching out into other technologies, languages, tools, and so on in order to diversify their skill set be it for personal and/or professional reasons.

And I really like that. It’s something that I like to do (though I have to admit that it was easier when life was a little simpler – that’s just me, though) and something that I’m still aiming to do (though I’m still delayed on getting involved with it as much as it pains me to admit it).

But when someone – be it you, me, or anyone else – claims they’re “getting out of the WordPress bubble” or “moving out of the WordPress bubble,” it causes me to look at myself and my own career to determine if I’m doing it right.

Ever had that feeling?

Internet Culture (Grievances and Gotchas)

June 19, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Yesterday, when I was sharing some thoughts on the nature of WordPress Menus and The Customizer I ended up on a tangential series of thoughts on my opinion and perspective on the nature of the social Internet.

Then I cut it if for no other reason that it was off topic.

Anyway, the original content included my thoughts on how I view reactions that we so often see on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Hacker News, Reddit, Imgur, and basically any website that accepts any comments of any type.

To be clear, not all sites are the same and the communities that are around these sites are a little different than others. It’d be wrong of me to generalize all of them into a single category and, honestly, some of them are incredibly welcoming despite many of the ideological and cultural differences that we have.

However (because there’s always a ‘however’, right?).

Online Communities

Though there are some commonalities that exist to some degree, it appears that all online communities seem to exhibit some type of behavior like this:

We’re really good at airing our grievances, and we’re really good at doing so in short, biting ways at the expense of someone else.

And I know that for some people, this doesn’t matter. After all, there’s a case to be made that this is the nature of the human race, but is that a reason that we shouldn’t strive for something better?

I mean, at least on some level?

Anyway, so here’s the short bit of content that I ended up cutting from yesterday’s post. Maybe it’ll resonate with someone else; maybe it’ll sound like a lot of nonsense.

Whatever the case, it’s something that’s slightly out of touch with what I normally write, but something I felt like publishing anyway.