Chris Wiegman
One question I’ve been asked more often lately is why, considering all the newer technology that is available today, have I stuck with WordPress for my career and my side work? Well, there are 5 reasons for that to be honest…
WordPress pays the bills
Yep, the biggest reason I’ve stuck with WordPress as the primary tool I work in is because it pays the bills. That’s not to say I wouldn’t use it at all if I worked in a different technology but the obvious answer here is I wouldn’t be using it nearly as much if I worked in another stack. I’d like to say the top reason is something more glamorous but that just isn’t the case. At the end of the day WordPress is still what puts a roof over my head and food in my belly.
I still enjoy the project
One of the reasons I still stick with WordPress to pay the bills is that after 6 years of playing with and working in WordPress I still haven’t gotten bored with it. It’s evolution has been rather spectacular considering it started out as a rather simple blogging tool and that evolution has continuously found me new challenges that have held my interest all this time.
The community has never let me down
Sure there has been drama in the WordPress community but I still look forward to each and every WordPress event as well as participating in the community both through projects and all kinds of other activities. As a return some of the best people I’ve ever met have helped me learn and grow along the way leading me to where I am today. As long as that community is there I want to be a part of it.
There is something to be said for knowing something well
One thing that annoys me about many developers at times is that often they know one or two things in each of a million technologies but never take the time to really learn any technology well. Don’t get me wrong, I love experimenting with other technologies but I also am proud of the fact that I’ve taken the time to master the medium I’ve been working in the last few years. Sure, I can and will learn new things over time and I’m sure at some point I’ll be out of WordPress completely and deep into something that doesn’t even exist yet but for the time being I know it well and I’m comfortable with it which gives me a lot of freedom when I start something new with it.
WordPress isn’t the only thing I’m working in lately
While most of what I do goes back to WordPress in one fashion or another it isn’t the only thing I’ve actually been working in. In fact, my largest side project today, Primary Vagrant, is written completely in Puppet and Ruby (the language Vagrant itself uses). This year in particular I think I’ve put far more into that project than just about anything else.