Replace “WordPress” with “Yellow Bubble”: An Open Letter to the WordPress Community

A few years ago, I fell in love with the WordPress community, as I have spoken about.  Even my wife sees people she has never met, as family.  The people I have had the pleasure of meeting in the WordPress community have made a dramatic impact on my life, and I thank you all, but some of you have become the thing I dread each day.

You know, I used to enjoy checking Twitter and see what many of you are up to.  Now, I scroll through occasionally; only to usually see some kind of bullshit labeled as #wpdrama.  Some of you are nodding but haven’t the slightest clue of what I’m talking about.  I’m not protesting those who bring up controversial topics.  I’m protesting those who slap a #wpdrama label on something and sweep it under the rug.

To be fair, I went through this same thing years ago in the Lotus “yellow bubble”. It was a dark time for me personally, but I took myself out of it and am now in a much better place. Does anybody remember the term “attack kittens”? Again, this is way in the past and you really need to read the article. Bubbles are everywhere and some now call them “pimples” that need to be popped.

I highly recommend that you read this post by “Jeff Matson” entitled “An Open Letter to the WordPress Community“.

Bruce’s Life Experiences No. 3394

I’m thankful for the experiences throughout my careers at UL, SHARP, OpenNTF, Elguji and Clark College that exposed me to international business, world culture, diversity, and humanity. A day doesn’t go by when I am not working or talking with people from all over the world.

Thank you to all of you who were part of those experiences.

Jealousy, Envy & Complacency

Being a creative professional is amazing, but there is a trio of deadly emotions that can cause you to doubt your abilities, spend more time obsessing over other people, and become lazy: jealousy, envy, and complacency. Chris Martin shares how he struggles with these emotions and five ways to fight them. The secret weapon? Gratitude.

Listen now to this episode of the Getting Work To Work Podcast >

What is the Value of Your Work?

As a creative professional, it can be hard to determine the value of your work, especially if your sense of worth is skewed from reality. In this episode, Chris Martin talks about how worth (internal barrier) affects our value (external barrier), how society views the value of creative work, and how we can change the ways we think, talk about, and communicate our value.

Listen now >

Feast and Famine

Most freelancers read the same information when researching how to run a business: plan for slow months by saving when the projects are plentiful, seemingly never-ending. While you may think of feasts and famines as a financial concept, Chris Martin talks about how your creativity follows the same peaks and valleys, often in the inverse direction to your finances. He shares five ways you can keep your focus on your goals during times of feast and famine.

Listen to this episode of the Getting Work to Work podcast >

More College Student Worst Practices

Continuing on from my list of “College Student Worst Practices” post:

Worst Practice No. 4:

Waiting until the day an assignment is due to ask the instructor for assistance. As soon as an assignment is announced or made available, read through it in its entirety at least once and maybe twice. Don’t simply do the assignment to hit the rubric marks as quite often there is more to the assignment than what appears in the rubric.

Worst Practice No. 5:

Expecting to learn everything you need to learn during class. Also, expecting to finish your work in class.

Worst Practice No. 6:

Not reading the syllabus. A course syllabus is a contract between the instructor and each and every student. It contains all of the things that a student will need to know about assignments, exams, late work policies, how a student’s grade will be determined, a statement about procedures and school policies for students with disabilities and much more. Neglecting to read it at the beginning of the class and every now and then is also not a good thing to do.

What does the syllabus really say? All of the things that you are going to ask tomorrow.

College Student Worst Practices – The First Three

Worst Practice No. 1:

From an email sent to students: “If you have read this far and want 3 extra credit points, send a message to me by Tuesday at noon.” 5 days later and only 2 people replied.

If your teacher/instructor ever offers you extra credit points for reading a weekly announcement email, respond to them as soon as you read the words “extra credit”.

Worst Practice No. 2:

Don’t wait until the assignment or exam due date to ask for an extension. It’s ok to ask for an extension (in my classes). Communicate early and often. It’s ok. I’m human and sometimes life happens and I get that.

Worst Practice No. 3:

If you are the smartest person in the classroom, and you know more than most people, don’t use that as the platform to challenge or prove that the instructor is dumber than you or that you are smarter than everyone else, use it as an opportunity to help others in the class that may be struggling.