I will tweet the link of these slides,
shortly after the talk.

@mrahmadawais

Let's talk about development.

First, a story

$20 Billion to $WTF
In 10 Years!

• Audio Cassettes
  → Released by Philips in 1962
  → Popular Between 1985 and 1995
  → Decline in early 2000's
• Walkman by Sony
  1979 — 2010
  385 million units sold
• Oxford Dictionary
  Removed the word "cassette player"
  in 2011

Web is evolving in exactly the same way.

Some developers realize it while others are waiting for the high tide.

Change is imminent!
What can you do about it?

You can be smart about your progress!

"There are too many languages!"

"Which one should I use?"

"Everything is changing too fast!"

😭

I'm overwhelmed
& Confused.

😭 → 😢 → 😑 → 😮 → 😁 → 😄

This talk is about how to learn and develop yourself and not just code.

Self-learning

Options

Risk Analysis

WordPress

#1.
Self-learning

Why self-learning?

• Education system is broken
• Most of us are self-taught developers

How to teach yourself?

• Google
• Read the source code
• Implement it / Teach it
• Find help at StackExchange
• The Pomodoro Technique
• RescueTime

When?

• Freelancers! Remember you are doing it for you.
• Designers! You are not a pencil in hands of your client.
• Satuday/Sunday: Take at least one day off.

#2.
Options

→ The Employee

• Learn the craft.
• Best for beginners.

It may seem obvious, but often in your career you’ll be faced with choices between more money and more responsibility. The right choice—at least in the long term—is almost always more responsibility.

→ The Employee

→ The Freelancer

• Market yourself.
• Buy your personal domain name.
• Your blog is your portfolio.

→ The Freelancer

→ The Entrepreneur

• Ideas are worth nothing!
• Do you have an audience?
• Start small and solve a problem.
• Idea validation is important.
• Partnerships & Joint Ventures.

People Who Care About Your Solution

People Who Are Using Your Solution

→ The Entrepreneur

Pick one. Whatever is best for you.

I've been an employee, a freelancer and
now I am an entrepreneur cum freelancer.

#3.
Risk Analysis

Take a calculated risk

I knew the # of emails to send to get a client

You have tax-free $10 Million in your account,
and 10 years of your life left, what would you do?

#4.
WordPress!

WordPress is Open Source

Which means it’s code written by all sorts of people, not a single company.
And while this can sound crazy, it actually works.

Community is the best part

Community is the best part of WordPress.

During the nine years I’ve been a part of this community,
I’ve seen people selflessly contribute to core. I’ve also seen
companies hire employees with the sole job to improve
WordPress in favor of five for the future, and witnessed the
community’s unfettered ability to share everything.

Contribute To WordPress

There are many ways in which you can contribute to WordPress.

• Core Contribution
• Design UI/UX
• Improve Documentation
• Translate WordPress
• Help with Accessibility
• Help in Support Forums
• Theme Review for themes
• Meetups, Teach & Train

Build a
WordPress Plugin or Theme

Read
WordPress Coding Standards

Turning pro is a mindset.

If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we’re thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don’t show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin’, no matter what.

“Simply put, a professional is someone who takes their responsibilities and career seriously and is willing to make the tough choices that have to be made—often at their own expense—for the purpose of doing what they know is right.”

You vs U

WordPress Developer

WordPress vs Wordpress

(notice the lowercase “p”)

WordPress vs Wordpress

(notice the lowercase “p”)

Whew. That was a lot.

Perspective is important

WordPress will change your life if you let it

Chris Lema