Fun Sucker

I love teaching. I love code. And guess what…

I love teaching code.

That is why I joined the WordPress Plugin Review team. Because, although we get our fair share of know-it-all plugin authors, and no small number of submissions from developers better than me, I often found myself in a position where I could teach, coach, or mentor.

Gently, carefully, so as to not be obtuse or belittling. Helping plugin developers to not only improve their plugin's code, but also their coding ability.

Those were the days.

I remember them fondly. Little notes, hand-typed, below the default templated output. "Note from reviewer:", I'd write, "consider using the WP API to create a custom endpoint here", with a link to the documentation.

Back in those days, I'd actually read the plugin code. I'd look through, file by file, to see how it all connects. I'd form an interconnected mental web of the plugin structure. Follow trails, tracking down potential vulnerabilities, peering into Classes and Interfaces to discover unused variables or orphaned functions.

It was detective work. Gritty. Messy. Neo-noir.

And yes, maybe I'm romanticising a little. We tend to do that about the past, don't we? But there was beauty there. Poetry. And everyday I could close my laptop, take one last sip of now-cold coffee, and feel proud about helping make the web a better place.

Now look at me. Resentful, jaded, stuck-in-the-mud. I'm more bitter than those coffee dregs.

Or am I? I keep being told that resistance to change is futile. That I can't bury my head in the sand. That I'll be left behind. But maybe not. Maybe I'm standing up for what I believe in. Standing for focus, and skill, and poetry.

The world doesn't have to shift beneath our feet based on Silicon Valley prophesy. We don't have to accept the crystal balling from techno-grifters and ex-crypto-bros. We have agency. We can push for change, express concern, and disengage with the platforms that aren't listening.

Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?