Uh Oh

One of those things you don’t really want to hear the person half way through giving you a haircut say. 

Ah! I really need to figure out what I’m doing here. 

Thanks Jen 😉

Birthday Weekend

This past Friday was my 36th birthday. The same day Noah had a class trip to Noggins Corner Farm, so I took the day off and went with him and his class. It was a cold windy day but we still had a good time. Every time I go on a class trip though I gather more respect for teachers. They modestly remind me that not every day is like a class trip, but even eating lunch was an ordeal 🙂

Our little group flew through the corn maze and with them as the leaders we were the second group out with all our stamps. The farm also has a large play area with the kids loved playing on. Complete with a large tire mountain with tunnels running underneath it. Thankfully no game of king of the castle broke out because that could have been dangerous. The wind was so bad at one point that it blew over a large bridge structure that was in place with us all standing there. Thank goodness no kids were on or beside it when it happened or the results would not have been good.

Our walk through a bit of their trails to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch was really nice and the kids each were able to pick an apple for a snack and a pumpkin to take home at the end. They were instructed to pick small pumpkins so they could carry them, but there weren’t many small ones left so my arms ended up a bit sore as well.

That night at home we had a nice family dinner and Jen had a wonderful dessert made for me. Mini cherry cheesecakes with Wapuu toppers on them! My large number of years didn’t lend themselves to fitting on top of the cheesecake very well, but they still tasted delicious.

Saturday the kids decorated and carved their pumpkins and I was able to get a nice run in. My running hasn’t been as regular lately, but I’ve been exploring different trails that I’ve never been on all near my home, and with the autumn colours, and no set goal in mind, my runs have been more enjoyable that they have been for a long time. They were starting to become more chore like, but now it is just fun.

Starting in the afternoon we started at the mall trick or treating, it’s great for the younger kids and it’s cool to get together with friends and see everyones costumes in a warm light place.  From there we have a bit of a new tradition where we head out to a friends place with a bunch of our families for a quick dinner and then head out around their subdivision with the kids. We had a pretty big group of us going around. With all the loot they brought home I’m going to have to step up my will power game a bit more again.

That night however was not the best night once we arrived home. Between the time change and one of the kids up with the flu in the night there wasn’t a lot of sleep and an early wake up call. Who says you get an extra hour of sleep. It would be great to get rid of DST all together.

Surprise Date Night

Last night Jen surprised me pretty good. She had plans for a while to go to the movies last night with a friend. After supper as I was cleaning things up she surprised me to let me know that it was actually her and I who were going to movies and that my mother was on her way to look after the kids.

My first reaction was to surprise her back, so I told her that we couldn’t go because I had scheduled some meetings at work earlier for once the kids went to bed seeing as she wasn’t going to be around. I guess that was pretty mean, but I didn’t let it go on too long before I told her I was kidding.

We went to see the Intern which I had been wanting to see and it didn’t disapoint. It wasn’t a complex movie but it was perfect to go and watch with Jen so we could spend a bit of time just us.

After the movie I told Jen I was going to switch out my hoodies for a suit and tie everyday. Pretty sure that wouldn’t last very long though, having only one suit that doesn’t really fit me anymore.

The kids came home from school and were thoroughly confused as to what was happening. They came in the door than ran back out, “Why’s dad in a suit? He’s all dressed up, he’s even got that gel stuff in his hair”

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Making Support Cool

Today I’ve been thinking a bit about support as a career again and wondering why so many people think of it like a entry or lower position. Besides one of the big reasons that I talked about before I think there are other things that come into play here as well.

One of the huge things is that being able to code has become very cool. In the case of Automattic two of the largest groups of employees we have are developers and support. In the media, and particularly tech media, it’s the people making the products that have become the rock stars. Either making something from scratch, finding a bug and fixing it, or conceiving a new feature and bringing it to life for tonnes of people to use, has to be very satisfying. Come on, that is cool! Why wouldn’t you want to aspire to be able to do that?

Another reason is most of my fellow Happiness Engineers are problem solvers. We want to fix things. If that happens to a bug or an improvement to our products how great would it be to go and fix it on the spot if a customer brings it to our attention. During one conversation someone pointed out to me a typo on one of our support documents. While we were talking I opened another window and fixed it. Even that tiny change impressed them and felt very good to me to have the power to resolve it.

There is no reason though that both developers and support roles can’t both be seen as cool. Support is cool and we should all be rock stars too. How do we turn things around and show the world how awesome support is? With coders they have that almost tangible result of their work. Look, see that? That’s what I made today. Maybe one of our tangibles could be all the hugs we get from users. There are not many days that go by that I don’t receive some sort of amazing feedback from someone I’ve talked with because either I or my colleagues have helped them. That is a powerful gift.

If we are doing our jobs well we could also say things like this: See this change? While talking to a bunch of people I knew there had to be a better way to do this, and after working with our developers here it is. Another scenario could be: While chatting with people it really seemed that this new feature would really help them accomplish their goals. Start that conversation and then become the champion behind it getting built and out there for everyone to use. We might not be the ones actually building or making, but we should be able to point to all kinds of examples where we’ve influenced the products based on our conversations. That to me is cool!

It’s up to us to help show the world that being in support is both awesome, and a viable career option in the right environment. How do we do that? Let’s find ways to show how rewarding and important great support is. If we can do that we can draw even more people into this career. That means more great co-workers and it could convince more companies to invest and make support a more prominent role with them.

Beautiful Autumn Weekend

This weekend we ended up with some beautiful fall weather. We had a bunch of errands to run in the city yesterday and had originally planned on taking the kids to the discovery centre as a way to break up the day. Since it was so nice out we instead decided to take a walk through Shubie Park instead. We made the right choice.

Today once Noah’s soccer was done we had some time before Jen and Ella were done fund raising for her dance troupe so we decided to go for a little drive and walk instead. There is a little spot that I’ve noticed just off the highway for years but have never known exactly how to get there, or stopped to enjoy it. Today we decided to check it out. We had to go down a few roads before we found the spot, but it was worth it. The colours of the leaves are stunning and with the river there as well it is going to become a favourite spot of mine I’d say.

Once home Jen and Ella joined us and they decided they wanted to go for a walk as well. I used the opportunity go for my first run since being home. Started out on the same route I used for a bike ride a couple days ago, but then instead of turning back home I continued on to meet up with the rest of the family for the walk and seeing pumpkin people again.

Always Thinking

Noah came home from school the other day while I was away all proud of himself. Their school gives out Bravos to students when they are caught being or doing something good. Positive reinforcement at it’s finest. They can then save up these bravos and trade them in for a reward.

Noah found that if he picks up garbage out side and someone sees him they will give him a bravo. At first this was good intention, but what he was proud of was because he found an easier way. He told Jen:

Today I took my own garbage from my lunch outside and showed the teacher before I put it in the garbage and I got a bravo. I didn’t even have to try to find any outside.

Jen had a bit of a talk about honestly with him after that.

Saving Money

Besides vacations it’s been years since I’ve purposely set aside money to save for something I’ve wanted. It’s always been much easier to somehow justify and throw it on a credit card and worry about paying it off afterwards. 

Luckily for the most part I don’t usually  spend much money on myself, but I do have my moments and when I do it’s usually something more expensive than a small treat.

Starting tonight I’m going to try an experiment and stop that. When I look at my life there is absolutely nothing I need, so I’m going to stop spending money on my wants and instead put money away for something specific. 

When we were in Park City one of the most enjoyable things I did was go for a bike tour. It had been years since I’d been on a bike, but in my younger years I did bike a lot. A number of years back now I purchased a bike again with the intent on using it to lose weight and excersise.

The bike was cheap and not even the right size for me. One of my very first rides on it had me over the handle bars because things weren’t tight enough and when I turned the wheel didn’t turn with me. That and being very overweight made it awkward and really hurt my rear so I almost never rode it. 

Yesterday I took it out for a spin and things are seized so the brakes don’t work well and I can’t switch into most of the gears. Even with that I still had fun though. Having lost weight it doesn’t hurt by butt nearly as much. 

While I was away though I got it in my head that I was going to buy myself a new half decent bike. The day before yesterday I went down to the local bike shop to talk to them about what I was looking for and price point. It looked like we found something they had in stock that would work but more expensive that I was looking for so I walked away. Turns out that was a good thing. 

Right before I left for the meetup I had taken the car into get an oil change and checked over but it needed more work. So I left it at my mechanics while I was gone so he could take care of it. Today I went to pick it up and found out how much I owed. There goes my bike for now. 

That and other conversations got me thinking. As an experiment I’m going to stop buying any of the extra things I want, or treats I might see and start actively putting that money away to save for a new bike. That way maybe in the spring I’ll have saved a fair amount to put towards it just in time to enjoy it. 

As there aren’t many things I treat myself on the one big thing I see is coffee. I drink a lot of coffee so after I run out here at home I’m going to give it up and start saving that money instead. But there are other times where I’ll randomly buy myself something I don’t really need as well, that will stop too. 

I figure this will do a couple things. One it will start getting me back into a more disaplined state with money, and when I do buy the bike I won’t feel guilty about it because it will be like I earned it. 

The Go-Giver

Recently I was recommended a short book to read called The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. Seeing as I was going to be spending some time on a plane I thought it would likely make a good choice as something to get through quickly while traveling.

The book is written in the form of a parable explaining five laws to stratospheric success. The tag line for the book is “A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea”, but as far as I’m concerned it can be applied to life in general. It’s not a hard read, but very engaging and it really explains the principles in an easy to grasp and fun way. I won’t give away all the laws but, the main idea is that giving to people without the expectation of anything in return, as the secret to be hugely successful.

Even though I’ve seen some of these things hold true in small ways in my own life I would have still been a little skeptical. However by looking at the concepts and comparing them to Open Source, and WordPress in particular, you can see how it can be true. The whole concept of open source is just that, people contribute to a project because the believe in it or think it is important. In the case of WordPress the project itself, and many people, have become very successful. There is a large number of people who make their living using, building on, or supporting, WordPress. The results of the 2014 WordPress survey had over 7500 people making their living with it.

There are are many other parts of the book that relate as well, but I’ll leave it for you to read, but think value, and influence as a couple others. Even without this I’d recommend the book, I can see me reading it a few more times to really try and absorb it all and trying to live closer to concepts in it.

Automattic Dance Party

This Grand Meetup which I just returned from has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. Really my emotions leading up to it, while I was there, then coming home have had me all over the place. Realistically I’m still processing a lot of what I learned, what I’m going to take away, and how I’m going to incorporate these things into my daily life. There was one particular event that after talking to others and reading more thoughts I think really sums up what kind of environment Grand Meetup and Automattic is. That is the Automattic 10th Anniversary Party on the final night.

Honestly after dinner I was really thinking that it was going to be the end of my night. Before the party though I went and had a nice quiet conversation and coffee with a couple of co-workers. After talking with them I gave in and said I’d at least go give it a chance, I am so glad I did.

The party started with different groups of Automatticians taking the stage and rocking it hard. They only played together for a week and kept switching people up after each song. It really blew my mind. We are made up of such talented people in so many ways and this was just one of them. It really turned my mood around listening and watching these folks get up and perform for us. So I grabbed a drink and turned to party mode.

What happened later on still surprises me and shocked my wife, but I actually was up and dancing to our special guests The Jane Doze who flew in to take care of music for us. For many people this isn’t a big deal and something they do all the time, for me I haven’t done it since elementary school. That’s because at my first dance, where I thought I was with friends, I was laughed at and made fun of enough that it caused me to run away crying and leave. Since that time I haven’t danced ever except for a few slow songs which was basically just me moving in circles with someone else.

It would be pretty easy to simply thank the whisky I had been drinking for my new found bravery, but that isn’t it, at least not completely. Over my teenage years there were plenty of times that I was in the position to get up and dance being fully lubricated with alcohol but still didn’t. It also wasn’t only me. There are at least two other accounts that I’ve heard of where people got up and danced and it wasn’t something they normally do. In fact it was one of them who helped convince me to give it a try.

The real reason that I felt comfortable enough to do this was because of the atmosphere of acceptance and friendship I felt from everyone I encountered. It really felt like a safe, fun place to let my guard down. Chances are my dancing skills were every much as bad or worse than that time in grade school, but I never heard anyone laughing or pointing at me. That said, I still hope there isn’t any video evidence, but there very well could be.

Readers of this blog are likely getting sick of hearing me say things like this, but I’m so happy and thankful for the opportunity that I have to work at Automattic and with all the people who make it such a special company. That really starts right from the top with CEO Matt Mullenweg, right down to one of the newest members on my team Alicia Henry and really everyone in between who I was able to meet. So thank you to everyone! I haven’t listed all the names, but that could take me a long time and I don’t want to leave anyone out by mistake.

I’ll end this post with this pitch, if this sounds like the kind of place you want to be a part of, go to our work with us page and contact our obviously super human hiring team.

Home Again

Not sure where to complain. I came out of my room this morning and there wasn’t a never ending supply of breakfast foods or buckets of coffee waiting for me. When I mentioned it to my wife she wasn’t very receptive to my problem. 

Although being in Park City Utah with my co-workers for a week was just a great experience, I’m very happy to be home in my own bed and getting tonnes of hugs this morning from my beautiful children before they were off to school. 

Now I just need to find the laundry service and house keeping to take care of this pile of dirty clothes I have.