I started out with a small black screen with a white cursor blinking. My mom could do some magic and then I could press keys to move a character around a maze. Now I’m a full-blown developer. What happened? How did I end up like this? Why do I spend my time on open source projects now?

My Dad’s a Developer

He’s been a developer all of my life, in some form or fashion, and started a bit before I was born. His dad was an engineer so I’m sure there’s some inherited technical capabilities that were handed down through stories, experience, and just being around it. Of course, my dad went to college and has a real knack for math, but I only went to college for a year. I did however soak in a ton of technical knowhow from my dad as I grew up. We always had at least one computer, my dad works for IBM so we were usually somewhat up-to-date.

Trial and Error

Everyone asks me how I did something. I usually tell them that I learned through experience or trial and error. Truth is, if I told them how many times I broke something, they’d think I was probably the opposite of an expert.

There’s no quick and easy way to learn to do things the ‘right’ way. Most courses I know for developing offer many examples and lots of technical reading, but really — you just have to code to learn. Until you code and test that code, it’s all theory. Since high school, I’ve spent most of my waking hours coding. I mean there’s other stuff like eating, school, friends, etc.. but really – my free time has been consumed by something I’d say is as close to an addiction as it is a calling.

I might as well face it I’m addicted to code

No matter how far from a computer I go, I get that urge to code. It’s my day job, it’s my hobby, and it’s my passion. I’m lucky that all three of those are true, where other people rarely get to do at work what they love, and they rarely want to do what they do at work when they get home too!

..and now onto why I contribute to Open Source projects

I’ve become a big believer in code karma. The more I give, the more I get. There are countless places online for me to read about how to get around an issue, or how to do something cool with jQuery / PHP. To me, those places wouldn’t exist unless the karma system were intact. I’m sure technically they could exist without me giving anything back (as many people do), but it’s something I just have to do.

I’m the lead developer for the Pods Framework because I’ve shown to the original creator that my passion for the WordPress ecosystem, my drive to contribute, plus my knowledge and experience all make me invaluable to the project.

I’ve spent thousands of hours contributing to open source projects (Pods Framework, WordPress, other plugins, etc..), both during the course of paid projects and in my free time. I do what I do because it’s what I love to do. My experience isn’t just mine, it’s shared through all of my contributions to open source projects I contribute to, shared with me by all of the places online that I learn tips / tricks / fixes from, and shared with my family by the blessing that we’ve been able to afford the things we need and get some of the things that we want.

In the end, I spend my time so you can enjoy much of what you do for free because I enjoy many free things from other people. Imagine something like that going on in the olden days, my wife would give me a whipping!

Thank you all for letting me be a part of the Pods Framework, and thank you for using it!