Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Personal Growth in Business and Development
Search
Tom McFarlin
April 24, 2016
Business
0
350
Personal Growth in Business and Development
Running a Business and Keeping up With Changing Technology
Tom McFarlin
April 24, 2016
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Tom McFarlin
See All by Tom McFarlin
A Case For Builing Web Applications in WordPress
tommcfarlin
0
23
Namespaces and Autoloading: Improving WordPress Plugin Architecture
tommcfarlin
4
710
Pressware, Publishing, and Passion
tommcfarlin
0
270
The Truth About The Environment
tommcfarlin
0
1k
Other Decks in Business
See All in Business
心と心に橋を架けよう
viva_tweet_x
0
1.3k
enechain company deck
enechain
PRO
9
120k
Q1 2025 Earnings release
cmbtech
PRO
0
100
株式会社10X - Company Deck
10xinc
89
1.5M
ラクスパートナーズ採用ピッチ資料_エンジニア部門.pdf
rakuspartners_recruit
0
25k
2024年度PoliPoliインパクトレポート(β版)/Impact Report 2024
polipoli
0
270
AI時代における変革の入口-100年後も語られる25年のために- #scrumosaka / The entry point to transformation in the AI era For 25 years that will be talked about 100 years from now
kyonmm
PRO
6
1k
株式会社Domuz会社紹介資料(採用)
kimpachi_d
0
36k
AWS Summit Japan 2025 社内コミュニティによる企業文化創り ~MAWS-UGの挑戦とこれから~
yukiogawa
2
930
エンジニアのための事業貢献入門/A business introduction for engineers
dskst
82
22k
株式会社ファンコミュニケーションズ|会社説明資料 / Company Deck
fancomi_career
0
1.7k
坂ノ途中 会社紹介資料 /Introduction
ontheslope
0
1.3k
Featured
See All Featured
VelocityConf: Rendering Performance Case Studies
addyosmani
332
24k
The Invisible Side of Design
smashingmag
301
51k
How to Create Impact in a Changing Tech Landscape [PerfNow 2023]
tammyeverts
53
2.9k
Let's Do A Bunch of Simple Stuff to Make Websites Faster
chriscoyier
507
140k
Typedesign – Prime Four
hannesfritz
42
2.7k
Thoughts on Productivity
jonyablonski
69
4.7k
Imperfection Machines: The Place of Print at Facebook
scottboms
267
13k
Building a Modern Day E-commerce SEO Strategy
aleyda
42
7.4k
StorybookのUI Testing Handbookを読んだ
zakiyama
30
5.9k
Why Our Code Smells
bkeepers
PRO
337
57k
ピンチをチャンスに:未来をつくるプロダクトロードマップ #pmconf2020
aki_iinuma
126
53k
Improving Core Web Vitals using Speculation Rules API
sergeychernyshev
18
1k
Transcript
Personal Growth Running a Business and Keeping up With Changing
Technology
• I’m Tom (nice to meet you!) • I’m self-employed
and blog daily • Married for eight years • Two beautiful daughters • Two crazy terrier mutts Hey, What’s Up? @tommcfarlin | https://tommcfarlin.com | http://pressware.co | https://presswareplugins.com
A Primer for Professional WordPress Development Practices Starting Up A
few questions for all of you.
1. How many of you manage developers? 2. How many
of you are developers who answer to others? I want to know…
Two Stories Leading to a Single Point
A Primer for Professional WordPress Development Practices Don’t Stop Believin’
My Journey in Rock and Roll
A Little Bit of Country • Raised listening to country
music. • Not into most modern musicians. • Taught an appreciation for good songwriting.
A Lot of Rock & Roll • Metallica inspired me
to want to play the guitar. • The Eagles, et al. made me want to expand my skill set. • Like hearing the guitar for the first time.
Then 90’s Top 40 • I began lessons. • I
learned a lot of 90’s Top 40 alternative rock. • This was a far cry from what I thought I was going to be learning.
An Insatiable Curiosity • Progressions, Scales, Theory • Interests soared
into blues, folk, and classical. • I began digging into deep tracks of well-known artists.
Writing Original Tunes • Played with other bands. • I
began writing and tracking tunes with my brother. • I was convinced that I was going to pursue music for a career.
If I didn’t know a song, I could learn it.
The more principles I knew, the easier it was to learn new material.
A Primer for Professional WordPress Development Practices What’s My Age
Again? I Blinked and It All Changed
Our First Computer • The Apple IIe • Too young,
but video games! • Atari, Nintendo, and so on. • These systems were computers.
Our First PC • 8 years old, Windows 3.1 •
Doom, Wolfenstein • Prodigy, America Online • And the slippery slope
How Am I Seeing This? • How does this machine
work? • AOL Forums • Visual Basic 3.0 • Proggies • IRC Channels • Linux, C, …, etc. • Costing my parents money
An Expensive Hobby • I took them apart • I
rebuilt them • Atari, Nintendo, and so on. • These systems were computers.
Into Computer Science • Studied Computer Science • Loved what
I was learning • How do I keep up with this? • FOMO? FONHAJ!
My First Job • A number of internships • Software
Engineer for a large jobs-based Internet company. • Loved what I was doing • Ultimately wanted to pursue self-employment.
A Primer for Professional WordPress Development Practices All Together Now
Where The Stories Converge
Remember This? The more principles I knew, the easier it
was to learn new material. If I didn’t know a song, I could learn it.
Remember This. The more principles I know, the easier it
is to learn new material. If I don’t know a technology, I can learn it.
Running a Business • Our technology helps drive our business.
• We should elegantly solve problems. • This helps us; This helps our users.
Experience and Awareness
Keeping up with Technology 1. Principles and foundations over technology.
Keeping up with Technology 1. Principles and foundations over technology.
2. Go deep rather than wide.
Keeping up with Technology 1. Principles and foundations over technology.
2. Go deep rather than wide. 3. Stay aware of what’s out there.
Keeping up with Technology 1. Principles and foundations over technology.
2. Go deep rather than wide. 3. Stay aware of what’s out there. 4. Connect with those who know more.
A Primer for Professional WordPress Development Practices Thank You! Comments,
Questions, or Confusion?