Speaking of dressing like a grown up, [Ramit](http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com) introduced me to a helpful service called Trunk Club. In short, you pick out outfits on their site that match your style, chat with your own consultant about the clothes you want, and then in a few days you receive a big box full of great (high end) clothing. If you like it all, keep it. If you don’t, put those pieces in the box and send it back. If you’ve looked at catalogs and said “well, I like that look” but then arrived at a store only to fail at picking out outfits, this is a no brainer. Ramit summed it up best: “It saves me HOURS of time and gets terrific results”.
Author Archives: Devin Reams
Put This On, Episode 7: Personal Style
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My favorite web series is [Put This On](http://putthison.com) hosted by Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor. In the final installment of Season 1, Sandy imparts the wise quip: “Every day put on one piece of clothing that says something about who you are…” (I won’t spoil the punchline),
Guys: go check out all episodes and if you enjoy them you should support the kickstarter project so we can have a Season 2. If you don’t, well, *you’re* the reason we can’t have nice things…
Every Day I’m Shufflin’
After watching the [Party Rock Anthem music video](http://www.vevo.com/watch/lmfao/party-rock-anthem/USUV71100390?source=instantsearch) by LMFAO (thanks, Rachel!) I realized my “white-boy running in place” dance moves are now just called “the shuffle”. Nice!
Estimate acceleration: the law of doubling estimates
Estimation is not a science, it is mostly guessing (hopefully based on prior experiences). In fact, a lot of web development is bespoke and and APIs change on a weekly basis.
Because of this, I’ve noticed that the process of estimation is handed off to various stakeholders which, in order to factor in estimation risks, inflates numbers at each level (which is okay).
In many cases an estimate originates with the folks expected to design and do the work: the Developer.
From there, its communicated to someone higher up who will spot check this for budgeting purposes: the Manager.
The estimate is then communicated (no matter the medium) to the folks responsible for the project: the Client.
This typically is elevated to someone higher up who owns the project success, budget, etc.: the Bosses.
An finally, if outsiders are to be affected (a website redesign, a new feature), some advanced communication is typically provided to: the Public.
At each step, someone is hearing a number (dollars, hours, months) and sometimes recalculating before they turn around and tell the next stakeholder. If I, the Client, hear the feature will be done “this week”, I will tell my Boss “next week” in case something (inevitably) comes up, changes are required, someone gets sick, a hurricane hits, etc.
This is not necessarily a symptom of mismanagement but an understanding that internal expectations are usually best-case. Hopefully the recipient’s experience has shown that “things happen” and any project may may have blind spots or unexpected events. Therefore, each person may turn around and double what they were just told. Some may see this as under-promising and over-delivering; I call it being realistic and conservative.
If you follow the flow from Developer to Public, you should realize that a “1 month” project set to complete in January should probably be communicated in the press release as a March launch. This may seem crazy or unreasonable to the uninitiated…
It’s much easier to have hard conversations about budgets or timelines early on (we are being intentionally conservative) than in the middle of a project (we didn’t expect this feature requiring this much work) or at the end when something isn’t quite done. This forces all kinds of pressure on everyone at each aforementioned level.
TL;DR: Estimates should accelerate at each level, from Developer up through Bosses because a bit of the “unexpected” needs to be factored in.
[Bronnie Ware](http://bronnieware.com/), a worker in palliative care, summarized the top five regrets of the dying. Number 2 is “I wish I didn’t work so hard”.
By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.
I could sit and nod my way through this article every day. I’ve bookmarked it for regular revisiting (hoping it will lead to future good choices). With some introspection, I’m sure most would agree these are regrets many of us have today.
New changes to Facebook are being rolled out to control who can see your content. As with previous attempts, this gives a lot more control that people keep asking for. But, makes it much more confusing and a little harder to manage. Good news though: people (mostly female) across Facebook are rejoicing over one of the most requested features (anecdotal): the ability to pre-approve photos you’re tagged in.
Congrats to Denver-based @bradybecker and @hiroprot for the launch of their latest endeavor (their previous was [Brightkite](http://brightkite.com/)): @forkly. It looks like a beautiful, simple way to share what you’re eating and enjoying when you’re out and about and discover new restaurants and foods. I’m excited to start trying it out.
>In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash. More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along Japan’s tsunami-ravaged coast … Inside those safes officials found $30 million in cash.
Whaaaaat? I’m trying to picture the ecstasy I enjoy when I find a $10 bill left in my winter jacket when returning to the first day of the ski season. Then I try to multiply that feeling by 7.8 x 10^6.
My lock screen message on OS X Lion
I added a “screen is locked” message (new to [OS X Lion](http://www.apple.com/macosx/) under System Preferences > Security & Privacy) to my laptop since I’m traveling. It says:
“Hard Drive is encrypted. If found, please contact 303-835-3512”
This helps me get a few points across: the drive is encrypted so you can’t steal this to check your email and screw around, I want you to contact me (without explicitly stating there is a reward, or incentive to steal it), I am savvy enough to add a message like this so you think this is a risky laptop to steal.
Do you think this communicates the right message? What would (do) you say on your lock screen?
I’m afraid it may also suggest “don’t bother trying to hack this, just dump the hard drive and sell it” which would slow down any tracking or recovery efforts.
WordCamp San Francisco 2011 wrap up
WordCamp San Francisco is now the official, annual “WordPress conference” hosted by Automattic and the WordPress Foundation. This year the event was structured as a three-day, dual-track conference which is nearly a 200% increase in sessions with a very modest ticket price bump. The overall value is unbeatable if you’re a member of WordPress community. I had the opportunity to volunteer and help emcee the developer sessions on Saturday.
Andrew Ozz, Daryl Koopersmith, Mark Jaquith, Jane Wells, Andy Nacin, Jon Cave
I found the conference was heavily attended by hard-core designers and developers with the expected mix of bloggers and beginners. The mix is great, and its even more balanced than what we see in a smaller locale like Denver. That’s the joy of having an “official” conference with that kind of draw from all over the world. With the attendance of dozens of WordPress core contributors, consultants, freelancers, and “Automatticians”, you know you’re surrounded by some of the best and brightest in the space. This lead to insightful developer sessions and even more interesting “hallway sessions” throughout the weekend.
Here’s are some of my more noteworthy take-aways:
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WordPress has matured to the point it has advanced tools and best practices becoming more public and widely known. I especially enjoyed learning a bit about unit testing, debugging, server scaling, security, and deployment.
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Andy Skelton suggested Alex switch to Drupal to solve some of his problems, instead. ;)
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Live-streaming a conference allows for a wider “back channel” discussion. I saw a lot of non-attendees tuning in from the live stream and posting a lot of good quips and insight to Twitter. Being “in person” at a conference is not always necessary.
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The “mobile experiences” in WordPress as we know them are changing. There is a time and place where a custom theme is needed to re-present content in a different way (imagery-heavy sites). But, for most cases, considering responsive design when designing a website or blog experience can lead to less overall effort and maintenance. By focusing on a responsive WordPress administration dashboard we can rely much more on sophisticated mobile browsers than disparate native applications for each device. For bloggers and most websites, this also means you can focus on maintaining one codebase, one set of features, and a consistent user experience across devices.
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Community and friendship is a feature of WordPress. When Alex and I (Crowd Favorite) share a ride back to the hotel with Nick and Mike (Voce Connect) there’s clearly a friendship and professional camaraderie which I’ve never seen in other spaces. When the core team sits on stage and jokes around as old friends, its clear that WordPress is more than a “project” or a “job” for most people. Plus, it’s certainly fun to catch up with (or meet) new friends that you’ve only experienced online.
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Matt‘s “State of the Word” address can become a stand-alone event. It feels like it only scratches the surface of the plethora of things happening in the fast-paced WordPress community and could easily be twice as long. While some projects may get mentioned, others may feel left out. WordPress is just “too big” (a good problem to have!) to cover everything but he’s done a great job summarizing the project as it evolves. The preparation and design that goes into this presentation is worth watching again and again.
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Except for notable exceptions Mark Jaquith and John James Jacoby, people from the internet seem shorter in person. ;)
I would recommend everyone going back and watching the sessions as they become available on WordPress.tv. See you at WordCamp San Francisco 2012!