General

From my very first full-time job, I’ve always noticed ways that software, processes, and documentation could be improved.

Obtuse software design and jargon-filled descriptions are things I find frustrating.

However, early in my career I often shared my thoughts in a negative light. Because I was highly critical, I was labelled a moaner, and sometimes ignored.

My comments could have been phrased more positively, but the ideas were there.

Over the years, I’ve learned that phrasing is important – but also that you’ve got to pick your battles. Some changes will be more valuable than others.

Social media sites such as LinkedIn are full of people with lots of great ideas. Lots of suggestions for how to improve. But many posts focus on YOU, more than anyone else.

There will always be fresh faces joining the workforce. People who haven’t yet figured out which ideas are worth fighting for. People who don’t know how to phrase things in a way that will convince other people that they have merit.

We can help to get those ideas heard, by listening and asking why they matter to the person. We can back those people, help them to pitch their ideas, and – most importantly – ensure they are credited for them if they are taken forward.

A simple acknowledgement, or a “great idea!”, or a thumbs up emoji is a good start.

The more we encourage people to share their ideas, the more they’ll do it.

I could’ve done with more encouragement when I was younger. Luckily I did find enough people who looked out for me, but I had to push past a great deal of resistance.

Don’t be someone who holds others back.

After an unsuccessful attempt to update the theme on my blog last night, I’ve had a second attempt. This one works better. As always, there are things still to be tweaked – but it’s a start.

To catch you up on yesterday’s post, I’ve installed Timber, a handy plugin that allows you to build Twig-based themes in WordPress. I’ve modified the starter theme and added Bootstrap 5.1, which makes it a lot easier to do a sidebar and will help with future edits.

Here’s a screenshot of how things look at the moment.

The code is on Github if you’re interested to have a look.

I’ve been thinking whether to move to a different blogging platform, roll my own, use static files, or simply change the theme.

This is far from the first time I’ve come to this point. Years ago I wrote my own CMS. Prior to that I used static HTML. I’ve also used lots of different platforms. In short, while the tech behind the blog is important to a point, I feel it’s secondary to the posts. I don’t want to focus too heavily on the tech and lose sight of the content.

For the time being, I’m sticking with WordPress and taking Timber for a spin. Timber allows you to create Twig-based themes and abstract the WordPress-y bits out of the templates. I use PHP for Switch Scores, but it’s a different world when you use Twig for templating, and Laravel for the framework. I’ve never really wanted to build a WordPress theme, as it feels like the “old days” of templating, with a mixture of PHP, HTML, and arbitrary WordPress functions all over the place.

My blog theme isn’t the smartest – it’s a poor imitation of the previous WordPress theme I was using – but something I’d always wanted to do was displaying lozenges, or “badges” (a la Bootstrap) for the categories on each post. Voila!

It’s got a bunch of things I need to fix (maybe don’t look at it on mobile), but it’s a start, and hopefully gives me a nudge to start posting content again.

Edit: Famous last words – I’ve temporarily reverted to the previous theme as it looks like there are a few things to fix.