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Life Updates

• Adam: Surprise .. I’m here! 
• Kyle: I’m shocked. I’m flummoxed. I’m gaffed. I’m bamboozled.  But mostly I’m delighted. So nice to have my good friend here for an unexpected visit.

WordPress News

• Too many things to recap for the past 6 months but let us try ..

Changes:  

• Kyle #1 
• Kyle #2 
• Kyle #3

Wearing/Drinking

• Kyle – Jemaine/ Brett 2016 t, drinking an ipa, Wizard and Glass by Stephen king
• Adam- WC Birmingham hoodie/bacon shirt, Water, The Art & Skill of Buddhist Meditation

No Questions.. Rather our annual – albeit really late…  2021 Predictions Recap  – How’d we do? 

• Kyle Wins.  5.5 to 4   

Segment: The Personal Question 

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Life Updates

• Adam:  Just working. Running. A lot.  runadam.run 
• Kyle: Believe it or not, I’m actually working on building a website.
• Rick: Working

WordPress News

• GoDaddy Data Breach Exposes 1.2 Million Active and Inactive Managed WordPress Hosting Accounts
• AWS was down! 😱
• Automattic Acquires WPScan
• Birmingham to Host First In-Person WordCamp, February 4-5, 2022

Changes

• Christie Chirinos now works at Chase
• John Wright works at Jackson High School
• Tyler Lau works at Function House

Wearing/Drinking/Reading

• Adam: beanie  / coffee  / IKIGAI – The Japanese secret to a long and happy life
• Kyle: Easy Digital Downloads t-shirt / water / Devil in the White City

Questions

1. Hi Guys-  I’m a veteran developer and recently joined a startup. I love writing code, and am fairly good at my job. What drives me crazy is the PMs at the company keep getting distracted with “shiny new object syndrome”  They are always trying to find / trying the latest greatest tool and make us switch.  It’s slowing down our dev time.. as the SOPs are always being re-written. As I’m new at the company.. what are some options to indicate this isn’t helping.  -Carl
2. Hi – So I am ready for a change as the company I work at is going through some changes which I won’t get into. That said,  I’ve applied for a handful of jobs but am pretty consistent in getting reply “we’ve found someone who better fits our needs” email. Someone suggested that my resume may need tweaking and be tailored to each specific job posting. Do you have any options / thoughts on that practice?  -Anonymous

Segment: Unordered Lists

• Rick wins?!  Beginner’s luck! 

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Updates 

• Adam:  New planner.  new website.  KitchenSinkWP – Episode 400!    
• Kyle: New electric guitar.
• Courtney: Developer topics on weekly meetup, Get Hired seeking interviewees in all the WP jobs

News:

• The HeroPress Network Launches –  cate and topher derosia 

• • The HeroPress Network
  • HeroPress
  • Hallway Chats
  • WP Podcasts
  • Find It WP
    

Wearing/Drinking/Reading? 

• Adam:  G / Coffee / The Rumi Prescription & Uncommon Service
• Kyle: WCA2 hoodie, Cloudways Hosting t-shirt / coffee / Devil in the White City
• Courtney:  WordPress university t-shirt, WordCamp Baltimore 2015 speaker hoodie / Coffee / Books:

• • Build Your Own Website for Beginners
  • Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging
  • Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince
    

Questions

Hey guys – 

1. I’ve been offered an amazing job that is totally in my wheelhouse as a developer, with room to grow. The issue is, I found out that some in leadership/upper management are on the opposite side of the fence than me when it comes to social causes. If it were you, would you still take the job?  -Anonymous 
2. I’m recently single (divorced) and haven’t had a “normal job” in a few years as my partner was the sole bread winner. That said, I’m looking for a job. My question is how would you explain a long gap in work history? –Jane Doe

Segment :  Deletable history 

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Updates:

• Adam: Went to visit my parents. Doing well.  Getting ready to take CWP and KSWP to the next level…  + cooler weather. Finally. 
• Kyle: I’m rocking the NFL predictions challenge.

WordPress News:

• SandHills!!  
• LearnDash to StellarWP

Changes:   

• Rich Tabor joins Extendify

Wearing/Drinking/Reading? 

• Adam:   WC Birmingham hoodie / coffee / The Plant Paradox 
• Kyle: A2 Hosting t-shirt, Sandhills Development hoodie / Pumpkin spice coffee / Devil in the White City

Questions

1. So I recently took a job after going though the ringer.. i.e. a multitude of interviews and the dreaded “project” that many company’s require. In this case I actually wasn’t even paid for it. 
2. That said.. the salary was negotiated, and an offer was made and I accepted.  Sadly within a few days I just knew that I made a mistake. It’s now been 30 days.. and I’m kicking myself…  Options on leaving by not burning a bridge. -Quinn The company I work for just got acquired… what are the best options? Do I stay? Leave?  Aka  “so your favorite plugin just got acquired. Will you stay with it?”  -Courtney Robertson

Segment: Personal Question

• Adam to Kyle:  1 year later — 5 kids, what advice would you tell yourself.
• Kyle to Adam: Movies/Songs/books that make you cry?

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Updates

• Adam: So many.. Wedding anniv (23 years) Ellens Bday (AGE REDACTED).  Kid graduated HS. Kid back at college. Kid back in HS… and 5 years at CWP. I win!  oh.. and I might have bought a new domain(388 days) .. finally!  (let 3 go) 
• Kyle: has a new podcast! I’ve never really talked into a mic for anything public that wasn’t WordPress related….until now!

WordPress News

• Mailchimp to Intuit for 12B! That’s bananas!
• Since we’ve been gone there were a lot of acquisitions including Frontity, GiveWP, Yoast, KanbanWP, SearchWP, Advanced Custom Fields, Pocket Casts, Amplify Plugins, Day One, IconicWP, Plugin Rank, Understrap, 

Changes

• Andrea Middleton leaving Automattic – heading to Reddit.
• Dustin – no longer Woo Happiness – now VIP Dev 

Wearing/Drinking/Reading? 

• Adam:  WP Trucker Hat / Coffee / Jackpot & Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less 
• Kyle:  Nexcess Hosting t-shirt, WPMRR trucker cap / orange juice / The Devil and the White City

Questions

1. Hey guys…  I run a medium agency with a dozen FT employees. We are based in a mid-market (not too expensive, but not cheap) and with C19 not going away anytime soon, I wonder what your thoughts are on salary based on location. Specifically, I have 2 employees who want to move away to where their cost of living is MUCH less expensive, one being overseas. They are good employees – but Ii’m torn on the salary issue. I’ve read that even the big companies (sales force, facebook, etc) are adjusting salaires if/when employees move. Looking for options.  Thx      -Anonymous 
2. I am a UX/UI designer and my boss wants me to track my time …for each project down as to see what projects are taking up resources. As a “creative” this feels weird to me. What are my options?   -Sarah H

Segment: Bomb Dot Com!

Adam’s 

1. Monotoneandboring.com 
2. Squirelleactivitises.com
3. runtohard.com
   

Kyle’s

1. cheesesneeze.com
2. complacentpoodles.com
3. shorple.com
4. wpipweallp.com
5. doubleyoupee.com
6. theunacquired.com
   

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Life Updates

• Adam: College kid coming back next week for summer. Other kid deciding on where to go to college next year. Which means I need a side hustle! HA! Oh.. and lots of running lately.  
• Kyle: Coaching T-Ball. Bought a bike.

News

• Hallway Chats — new hosts.  Tara Clayes & Liam Dempsey have handed it off to Cate and Topher DeRosia.  

Changes 

• Cate is also joining WP Buffs! 
• AJ Morris is now a product manager at Gravity Forms

Wearing/Drinking/Reading? 

• Adam:  BeaverBuilder hat // coffee //  just finished Pancakes in Paradise & Hatching Twitter – started reading Principles by Ray Dalio
• Kyle:  WP Engine t-shirt, Sandhills Development hat / Pomegranate Kiefer / The Last Wish

Questions:

1. Hey guys  —  So .. turns out that 1/2 of the team I work with lied to get their jobs.  Some are “Developers” others are in “Marketing”.   I’d say that both are a problem as the devs keep taking forever to “learn” (i.e. Google) the answer/fix and the Marketing team is just copying other websites for ideas and strategy. Upper management has no idea. Options?  -Colby R.
2. Any ideas or options on how to get other developers to collaborate in a productive manner?  What I mean by this is that many of the other developers I work with are very non social/socially awkward. Additionally some of them don’t like each other very much.  It’s tense to say the least. Or lead developer isn’t aware of this as she isn’t a part of the daily operations.  -Brian

Segment: Bomb Dot Com!

• Adam’s:
  • laptopandabackpack.com – travel blogging
  • findabetterwaytooffend.com – snarky humor
  • Noneedforyou.com – family blog
  • Fixedandvacinated.com – Vet/Human vaccine dosages
• Kyle’s:
  • aarondontgo.com
  • finishthebookgeorge.com
  • nicholasfury.com
  • plungerz.com
  • gludge.com

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Updates:

• Adam: parents celebrating 55 years.  Had a client offer to give me a raise.. And overall ..raised CWP prices too. 🙂  
• Kyle: I celebrate 4 years with Sandhills Development.

News:

• Sectigo acquisition of SiteLock

Wearing/Drinking/Reading? 

• Adam:   GOP Shirt, coffee, The Psychology of money Morgan Housel
• Kyle:  WP Engine t-shirt, Sandhills Development hat, Pomegranate Kiefer, The Last Wish

Questions:

1. A coworker reached out to me in confidence to say that another coworker, is leaving in a few months,.  That second co-worker then told me that the first one is also looking to leave and has been interviewing.  A funny as this may seem, what do I do in regards to telling HR and or management as I’m afraid that their workloads may be dumped on me.  
2. I work at a non profit as a developer and really like my job. I also like a bunch of my co-workers. That being said,.. there is too much drama (IMO) in our company and it drives me bonkers.  I even created a non-company slack workspace so that I can communicate with some other co-workers that are on the same page with me.  What are some options to squash the rumor/drama mongers at a company?

Segment do_enque 

Kyle

• The Last Blockbuster on Netflix
• Song Exploder on Netflix
• Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+
• The Big Sick on Netflix
• Still Watching: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier podcast
• Dua Lipa on Spotify
• Cautionary Tales podcast
• Audible God podcast
• Shaquille O’Neal on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast
• Darknet Diaries 87: Guild of the Grumpy Old Hackers podcast
• Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein on Tim Ferris podcast
• Paul McCartney on Smartless podcast
• Your Favorite Band Sucks podcast
• Michelle Ames interviewing Matt Mullenweg on WP Coffee Talk
• The Dangers of Whitewashing Black History TEDx talk
  

Adam

• The Last Blockbuster 
• Falcon and the Winter Soldier
• Darknet Diaries 87: Guild of the Grumpy Old Hackers podcast
• Wandavision — next up. 
• Documentary Kid90— Punky Brewster 
• American hustle
• JoJo Rabbit

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Life Updates

• Kyle:  adding role at Sandhills at Product Mgr for EDD
• Adam:  Dad turned 90. applied for FAFSA for Parker. Yikes!

Changes

• Aaron Campbell moved over to NewFold Digital
• Christie Chirinos leaving WPMRR podcast. 
• Josh Pollock and Joel Worsham join 10up
• David Beja and Nina Pacifico join Sandhills Development

Wearing/Drinking/Reading

• Adam:  Pagely hoodie /  coffee / Ultralearning
• Kyle:  A2 Hosting t-shirt, WC Ann Arbor hoodie, WC Ann Arbor hat / Kahfie / The Last Wish

Questions

1. I currently work as a developer at an agency and am looking to switch into more of an operations or PM role. What are some options to make that interest known to upper management? -Doug
2. I been promoted to a lead dev and with that promotion, I’ve been tasked with doing code review. Truth be told I hate code review. Matter of fact, I get angry when i look at other peoples code. How to I stop getting so mad at that!? 

Website mentioned: https://www.restartcbd.com/

Segment: Deletable History

• Reviewing some old proposals. 

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Life Updates

• Kyle: Joining a couple masterminds. Never done one of these before but I think they’re neat.
• Adam: Selling a domain. 7 years if KSWP!  Launched a service/new site –> AdamSilver.com

Changes:  

• WP Engine has hired WPGraphQL creator and maintainer Jason Bahl as a Principal Software Engineer.

Wearing/Drinking/Reading? 

• Adam:   WCPHX – hoodie..  /  Water  /  Ultralearning   
• Kyle:   Apply Filters t-shirt, Nexcess Hosting hat / Water / The Last Wish (book 1 of The Witcher series)

Questions

1. I’m a lead developer at the moment and heard that I am about to be promoted to “team lead”.  Oddly enough I am very close to accepting another job and leaving the current company.  What say you in regards on how to approach this with my manager?  -Dave
2. I just left a large company to go solo/freelance. Turns out there is a lot of busy work that I’m not a fan of… first and foremost getting proposals/estimates to new clients.  That said, are are some best practices in delivering proposals/estimates?  -Maureen

Segment:  BombDotCom

• wpgraveyard.com
• shquart.com
• epicstrollers.com
• mealsonmeals.com
• elevenfeetapart.com
• Hereiswhatyoumissed.com 
• hopefullyonedaysoon.com
• canyoustartyesterday.com

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Life Updates

• Kyle: watching shows – Rhythm and Flow on netflix, MCU, 
• Adam: Happy New Year!  Working. Set up new system. Takes time… plus   trying to make it rain?!  Plus about to try an experiment with Time Blocking on the calendar.  

WordPress News

• Modern Tribe sold their calendar – The Events Calendar to Liquid Web 
• WordPress.com offers website development! 

Wearing/Drinking/Reading? 

• Adam:   Hoodie WC Chicago // Coffee / The Simple Path to Wealth
• Kyle: Freemius t-shirt / Coffee / The Last Wish

No Questions this week as we review our 2020 predictions and make new ones for 2021

How’d we do ?   ….The Score Card

• Adam: 1
• Kyle:  3 
• Kyle wins 2020 

2021 Predictions 

Kyle:

• I will guest appear on more podcast shows than you
• Both of us will speak at a WordCamp again
• NO IPOs in WP
• Some business will launch a “Hosted {WP product}” that is not WooCommerce
• I will write more blog posts than you
• You will tweet more than me
• Featured plugins will be different (currently 7: classic editor, akismet, jetpack, bbPress gutenberg, health check, buddy press)
• We’ll find a way to meet in person
  

Adam 

The WP Project — 

• Getting PROPS!!  Dangit!
  

Personal For Me 

• Sunset 1 maybe 2 projects 
• Launch 1 new for money 
• Learn Guitar 
• Learn Language 
• Biz Debt cut by 1/2 this year. Vs personal..  which I’d like to be zero!
  

Personal for Kyle 

• Dog
• No more kids
• Run a 10k?! 
• Be a guest on 2 podcasts.