https://2017.milano.wordcamp.org

1. Using WordPress for Personal Development
Sergey Biryukov
WordCamp Milano 2017

2. Sergey Biryukov
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WordPress Core Contributor at Yoast
yoast.com
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Co-founder of Russian WP community
ru.wordpress.org
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Polyglots, Support, and Meta teams
make.wordpress.org
sergeybiryukov.com
@SergeyBiryukov

3. Personal Development
Personal development is the conscious pursuit of
personal growth by expanding self-awareness and
knowledge and improving personal skills.

4. Personal Development
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time management
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healthy lifestyle
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self-improvement
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motivation
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organization
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relationships
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useful habits
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productivity
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problem solving
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self-discipline
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creativity
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skills

5. Using WordPress for Personal Development
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Improving your skills
– Development
– Translation
– Communication
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Self-improvement

6. Improving Your Development Skills
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Read WordPress source code.
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Use Git/SVN Blame feature for more context.
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Go to WordCamps and connect with other developers.
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Talk to the developers you respect.
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Use version control for all of your projects.
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Study plugin and theme developer handbooks.
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Create public plugins or themes and support them.

7. Improving Your Development Skills
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Learn i18n best practices.
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Learn accessibility best practices.
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Learn security best practices.
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Learn basic debugging and troubleshooting skills.
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Write code with WP_DEBUG turned on.
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Write unit tests for your code.

8. Improving Your Development Skills
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Follow make.wordpress.org/core/.
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Contribute to WordPress core and documentation.
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Raise objections if you think a recent change is problematic.
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Participate in support forums.
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Be open to feedback and always keep respectful attitude.
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Subscribe to WordPress-related resources and learn something
new every day.

9. Improving Your Translation Skills
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Join the Polyglots team: make.wordpress.org/polyglots/.
– Over 160 locales (more than 100 active)
– More than 14,500 volunteers from all over the world
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Translate your favorite pugins and themes into your language.
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Follow the tips for good translations:
– Translate organically, not literally.
– Keep the same level of formality (or informality).
– Don’t use slang or audience-specific terms.
– Read other software localizations in your language.

10. Improving Your Translation Skills
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Tips for good translations (continued):
– Use the project glossary for consistent translations.
– See the source code for more context.
– See translator comments.
– Translate similar phrases in a consistent way.
– Don’t mix up HTML entities ( ) and placeholders (%s, %1$s).
– Read the resulting sentence out loud and make sure it sounds natural
to your language.

11. Improving Your Communication Skills
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Going to WordCamps is good for:
– Networking
– Practicing speaking English (if you’re not a native speaker)
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A simple hello at a WordCamp can lead to:
– Business ideas
– Partnerships
– Brainstorming sessions
– Professional development

12. Improving Your Communication Skills
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“An introverted community manager’s guide to surviving
WordCamp US” by Mellissa Hill:
– Make friends with at least one person who knows everyone else.
– Attend the talks that interest you, but don’t panic if you miss one (or
more).
– Approach the speakers (and developers, designers, community
organizers, etc.) that you admire. Say thanks!
– Use this break from the confines of the desk to move your body!

13. Self-Improvement
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Learning new productivity techniques
– “Browser tabs as a to-do list is not a good strategy.” —@johnbillion
– Pick the tools that work for you.
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Overcoming the impostor syndrome
– “My friend the Impostor Syndrome” by Sonja Leix @ WordPress.tv
– “Escaping The Impostor Syndrome” by Chris Lema @ WordPress.tv
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Preventing burnout
– “Care and Feeding of Your Passion” by Josepha Haden @ WordPress.tv

14. How Matt Mullenweg Avoids Burnout
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Everything is connected, so if any of ( health | diet |
relationships | family | work | soul | creative outlet ) is running on
empty for too long, it will impact the others.
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Recovery always comes from the people around you who give
you unconditional love and support.
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Taking small mini-breaks frequently.
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Working from different locations.
from Matt Mullenweg’s Q&A session on Product Hunt

15. In open source, trying to view the bigger picture and
always keeping a respectful attitude goes a long way.
And not just in open source :)

16. @SergeyBiryukov
Thanks! Questions?