Things That Matter Most

Things That Matter Most

Reflections and Foreshadowing – 2018 Edition

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New Year's is an opportunity to stop, take stock, and reflect on everything we've done in the past year. While it's usually a good idea to do this more often than once a year, the seasonal holiday presents an opportune moment for the too-busy-to-otherwise-schedule-things.

I fall into that category.

Today begins a new annual tradition of recounting the successes and losses of the prior year and setting clear, actionable goals for the year to come.

2017 in Review

It's common to spend New Year's lamenting how horrible the previous year has been; this might be a recent occurrence, but it's also increasing in frequency. In hindsight, however, I'm pretty happy about my 2017.

The Ups

This past year saw me speak at several conferences. From Florida to Portland to Washington, D.C. I spent time teaching, learning from, meeting, and building friendships with some truly great people!

Welcome to the world, little one!

Summer saw the arrival of our daughter. She's an absolute delight and I love learning more about her personality each and every day. Having a little one in the house reenforces so many of my personal goals for self growth – now it's not just my own ego that depends on my doing what I say I'll do!

2017 also saw me become a regular contributor to php[architect] magazine, writing the monthly Security Corner column. This year I also wrote and published my first book, a handbook covering all things related to PHP application security.

Back in the personal realm, 2017 saw me continuing down the path of custom building furniture for our home. After finishing a coffee table in 2016, I made two custom end tables and a rocking chair in 2017!

I'm another year older, have a few extra line items for my resume, and hopefully have picked up some deeper levels of wisdom and knowledge along the way.

The Downs

Like many people, my year wasn't all smiles. I lost family. I lost friends. I gained more than a few gray hairs worrying about the future of my community and nation.

Each of these is a lesson learned. Never a regret. Life is too short and moves too quickly to waste time on regrets.

The Year to Come

I typically set myself a small handful private milestones to achieve each year. By "small handful" I mean a bulleted list on a Post-It note. This year is no different.

By the close of 2018,  I will:

  • Master a new software technology related to machine learning (currently studying TensorFlow)
  • Run a half marathon (I've run 3 full marathons already, but I need to get back into this. I have two tentative races on the calendar)
  • Start a new business (Paperwork is filed and the domain is purchased. I'm putting the time in to get things off the ground within the next month or two)
  • Write a book on secure application design (Currently whiteboarding topics and potential outlines)
  • Take the family on a fun, memorable vacation (Planning something for later in the summer/fall)

What's on your list? What steps are you taking right now to move closer to accomplishing it?

How I Started Speaking

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Those who know me also know that I didn’t get started as a developer by choice. It was mere necessity that I run a website or blog to raise my profile in Google search results so companies would listen to me when I applied for marketing positions.

The thing is, I got pretty good at writing code. It quickly overtook marketing as my means of financial support and I haven’t stopped since. Though, I almost did.

With the exception of a year spent freelancing, I’ve been employed by larger dev shops for my entire career. This has been a great way to learn; never underestimate the value of peer code review. Sadly, not all of these “larger” shops were large enough for me to really grow.

I worked for a medical software company on a small dev team where we coded on ancient PCs and pushed code to a legacy blade server (bought off eBay) in the closet. It was in this job where I started contributing heavily to WordPress. I couldn’t learn much more from my team, so I looked for a team where I could learn.

Getting established in WordPress, though, is hard. If you’re a student with copious free time, work for an agency that sponsors contributions, or speak regularly at events it’s no big deal. I was none of these; so people I respected pushed me to start speaking.

WordCamp Portland was the only real event in town. It was a much younger event, and with no real speaking experience, I had no chance of getting on the schedule. Working for a Windows-based team, getting the backing to apply to other Camps was impossible.

Later, I moved to a new team. I learned even more. I kept blogging, I kept contributing, I kept trying. Still, I had no backing to attend an out-of-town event and couldn’t get on the agenda.

Thankfully, my contributions on the new WordPress Stack Exchange garnered the attention of Stack Overflow. They offered to pay for me to attend a Camp of my choice. Portland still hadn’t accepted me, but I had a friend (and thus, lodging) in Phoenix, so I bought a ticket and flew to AZ.

I wasn’t even officially on the agenda until the day before. I kept pestering the organizing team about several TBA slots during their hack day … until they finally agreed to let me speak. It was amazing.

I had no experience. No idea what I was doing. I hadn’t rehearsed. But I took the stage and presented anyway. It was the best move of my career.

My talk at WordCamp Phoenix got me in to WordCamp Seattle. Seattle eventually got me into Portland. WordCamp Portland helped cement my joining of 10up and earned me an invite to jQuery Portland. The backing of my new team, and my increased experience with speaking got me to Boston, Russia, Brazil, WordCamp Europe, WordCamp US, php[world], and so many events I can’t enumerate them.

My point is, though, I was lucky. I had someone stick their neck out to send me to an event and get me started. I had someone else take the risk to hire me. I’ve used these to my advantage to push forward in my career and have accomplished more than I ever believed possible.

I have been incredibly privileged in my career. I fully recognize and respect this isn’t the case for everyone. It’s why I still write: to provide resources for those who have none. It’s why I publish FOSS code: to help get other devs started.

It’s why I even contributed personal finances to the WordPress Foundation: to help open the project for those with less privilege.

But those small contributions are meaningless without a larger scale, fundamental recognition of the problem and a community commitment to fix them.

I’m doing a small part. Paying WordCamp speakers for their contributions would also be a small part, but would go farther than any one person could on their own. After all, that’s what a community organization is for, right?

Job Definitions

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What do you do?

I absolutely loathe this question. Not because it’s difficult to answer, or because I’m unwilling to discuss my job or my work with strangers at parties. I hate this question because of the way people answer it.

I work for … as a …

It’s become common place for people to define what they do with their lives in terms of which company employs them or the title printed on their business cards. When friends introduce me, it’s often along the lines of, “meet Eric, he’s a developer” or an engineer or a coder.

That’s not me, though. My role in my job is not the limit to who I am.

Tekton

For the past year I’ve been writing code for a Portland-area startup called Tozny. It’s a fantastic team, agile in the sense of both how we manage projects and in how quickly we can turn new concepts into reality. It’s a great place to be, and I have the luxury of being able to define my own title.

I choose to call myself a “Tekton.” This is an ancient Greek term that was used to describe an artisan, craftsman, or builder. It’s also the noun that was used to describe the profession of Jesus Christ (and is traditionally translated “carpenter” in the English Bible).

It’s a perfect way to describe me for many reasons.

Professionally

I do write code. My friends aren’t making a mistake when they introduce me as a developer. Unfortunately, there are many categories of software developers – some focus just on putting out lines of code, others collect languages and frameworks like trophies and never move beyond an intermediate level in any particular direction. I think of myself in a different category – when it comes to code, I focus on craftsmanship.

First and foremost, I ensure I get the job done. Beyond that, I hold myself to a very high standard in terms of documentation, code quality, and deliverables. Even when I’m working on a personal project, I ask a few other developers in a private Slack team to review my code before checking it off as “complete.”

I also focus a great deal on understanding all of the tools available to me. I don’t need to be an expert in every language or framework, nor do I need to have a working understanding of them. I just need to know what’s available and the situations in which each tool excels so I can make the best decision possible for which tool to use – even if that means referring a client to another developer.

Recreationally

I also do a fair amount of artisan work on the side. I enjoy cooking a great deal and experiment with my own recipes as time (and my family’s appetite) allows. It’s exciting to make easy dishes like scrambled eggs or French toast on weekends. It’s even more rewarding to slow cook bourbon-glazed pork or invest the time required to make tiramisu from scratch.

I also spend time working on everything from electronics to private code projects to custom furniture. These projects give me a break from my day job but still allow me to spend myself in the creation of something new.

Personally

In a world where outsiders rush to apply labels to everyone and everything, regardless of how well they fit, it’s important to understand who you are and why that identity is important to you. I personally find my identity based on certain priorities in my life.

First, I am a follower of Christ.

Second, I am a husband.

Third, I am (soon going to be) a father.

These three lenses are the most important to everything I do, how I relate to those around me, and how I do my job – whatever that job may be.

The next lens, however, is my chosen descriptor of who I am, what I am, and why I was put on this planet. I am a creator. I am a maker. I am a craftsman, artisan, and builder. I am a Tekton.

This title describes what I do: I make things, both for a living and for private self actualization.

This title describes how I do what I do: I always put my best foot forward and aim to improve daily at my craft.

This title describes why I do what I do: Both Jesus and his adoptive father were tektons. It was the family trade. As a follower of Christ, I see myself as being adopted into his family as well and want to be a part of that trade. Beyond that, God himself is a creator, a builder, and an artisan. There is no better way for me to draw nearer to him than to follow in his footsteps and create as well.

The biggest advantage of this title, and the fact that so few are familiar with the term, is that my business card gives me the opportunity to explain me at a deeper level when I introduce myself to people.

What do you do?

I still hate the question … but having an answer that truly fits me is more rewarding than I ever could have imagined.

I call myself a ‘Tekton.’ It’s an ancient Greek term that was used to describe the profession of Christ. It means ‘craftsman, artisan, or builder’ and is how I define myself. I write code for a paycheck, but I create things for a living.

How do you define yourself?

Refactoring in Real Life

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Refactoring <noun>: The process of restructuring existing computer code without changing its external behavior. Refactoring improves nonfunctional attributes of the software. 1

The original reclaimed wood coffee table as pictured on Houzz.

The original reclaimed wood coffee table as pictured on Houzz.

About a month ago, we saw an interesting table on a design idea website. It’s a round, reclaimed wood table that’s sure to bring instant character to any living room. The thing is: I wanted to take a shot at building it myself. Reclaimed wood projects are amazing and they give you the opportunity to take materials used in one project to create a vastly different one – very similar to the kind of refactoring I do with code in my day job.

The Materials

As it so happens, there are quite a few lumber yards in the area that specialize in selling reclaimed wood. Some even go so far as to build out their own pieces that can then be re-sold, but I just needed a lumber yard with some quality, near-to-dimension pieces that I could use.

Salvage Works in Northeast Portland ended up being the perfect place.

All of the lumber I used was marked as 1x4 but really varied in thickness. Some was in better shape than others.

All of the lumber I used was marked as 1×4 but really varied in thickness. Some was in better shape than others.

Their indoor lumber yard has a wide variety of reclaimed pieces in just about every dimension you could need. They even have some newer, live-edge pieces if you’re looking for that kind of character in your furniture. 2

I was able to pick up several pieces of lumber billed as 1x4s that had, at one time, been part of a barn from a nearby town that was originally built in the 1800s. Some of the pieces were quite dirty, some had a few very unique weather stains, and some even still had the red paint from the walls! Selecting the pieces was a dirty process, wrought with slivers and a few scratches, but I made off with a great sampling of supplies.

The Build

Working with nothing but a photo of what the table should look like was a challenge. It was fun, but still a challenge. Most of the pieces had to be shaved down to the appropriate dimensions; without a planer, I had to improvise a jig for my table saw and just crank the blade up as high as it could go.

The wood itself was mostly of good quality. There were quite a few sections of rot that had to be cut off. There were more than a few nail holes and weather cracks that I needed to work around. And several pieces had more than a few nails still in the wood.

I removed most of the nails (some were too deep to extract), and I was beyond impressed with what I found. Remember, the original barn was built in the 1800s … at the time, you didn’t just run down to the hardware store for a box of Loctite nails. Many of the nails I pulled out of these pieces were square, hand-forged nails.

There were several hand-forged, square nails throughout the bigger pieces I got to work with.

There were several hand-forged, square nails throughout the bigger pieces I got to work with.

If that doesn’t impress you … watch the video below to see just what is involved in forging a nail by hand.

The base of the table is 40 slats, roughly 3-inches in width with a slight bevel to make the curve.

The base of the table is 40 slats, roughly 3-inches in width with a slight bevel.

Overall, the project required two major components – the round base, and the pizza-style top. The base itself was easy enough. Each of the 40 slats needed to be cut to size, cut to width, and planed to depth. Once everything was the right size, I cut a 4.5-degree bevel on either side of each slat so they’d all fit together snugly. It took two of us to edge-glue and arrange the entire base, but I then bound it all together with twine and copious amounts of masking tape to dry.

Each "pizza-wedge" has a 3-inch base and tapers to a 9-degree wedge.

Each “pizza-wedge” has a 3-inch base and tapers to a 9-degree wedge.

The top is a bit thinner – each slat is just shy of 1/2-inch thick – than the base. Again, each slat needed to be cut to length, cut to width, and planed to depth. I then built a jig out of some scrap plywood so I could cut each piece into a 9-degree wedge to fit together into the round top. Again, edge-gluing holds it all together, but a thin piece of fiberboard nailed to the underside adds some extra strength to the expanse so it won’t accidentally fall into the center.

To fully round things out, I used a nifty trick I learned on YouTube that lets you create a perfectly circular tabletop (or flywheel) with a table saw:

To keep everything locked tight,there’s also a length of wire running around the inside and a total of 16 tabletop anchors to keep things from shifting. I applied three coats of varnish to keep everything looking smooth, waterproofed, and cleanable.

The Result

Finished reclaimed wood tableThe final piece was every bit as wonderful as I’d hoped. Much of the barn’s original red color was salvageable – and looks amazing after a light sanding and varnish. The thick grains in some of the other pieces stand out wonderfully. The age marks in some of the thinner pieces bring out some truly wonderful character as well.

As do the original marks of the band-saws and circular saws that originally hewed the wood almost 200 years ago.

It’s truly wonderful what can be wrought when you reuse or recycle materials and give them a second life. I’m going to be happy using and looking at this table for years to come!

Notes:

  1. Wikipedia: Code Refactoring ↩
  2. I think I already have some ideas for my next project … ↩

Be Yourself

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I’ve seen an interesting phenomena take place over the past few months. There are several people I follow online and I’ve seen many of them begin to back away from the public personas that made them reputable in the first place.

It’s not that they’ve changed. It’s not that they’ve taken on new personas. It’s that they’ve reached a position in the community where the cost of a misstep is compounded by their fame.

I’ve seen individuals previously known for their outgoingness not publish something controversial out of the fear of a public backlash. I’ve seen others create secondary publication channels – less visible sites on Tumblr, for example – rather than put a potentially inflammatory statement on their more public, primary channel.

I’ve seen people make a statement, then immediately back away and recant because they can’t put up with the negative publicity of that statement.

Don’t Be Fake

The problem with all of these scenarios is that you’re abandoning your true self. You’re selling out for popularity, fame, and a high Klout score.

You’re stepping away from the characteristics that define you and instead allowing yourself to be defined by the demagogical ebbs and flows of the community around you.

You’re betraying your brand.

Be Yourself

So long as you’re consistent, there is absolutely no danger in being yourself online. The personality and character that has carried you this far will continue to carry you in the future.

That said, increased visibility will lead to an increase in the volume of negative feedback. You ignored this feedback when you started out; don’t start listening to it now.

This past weekend, I saw a plethora of tweets take off – about race. Some were more politically charged than others. Some were more emotional than others. Every single one triggered some kind of response.

After re-tweeting a particular message, for example, a random follower of Chris Lema threatened to unfollow him in retaliation. Chris’ response was wonderful:

It was wonderful because Chris is the kind of person who is true to his character and identity. He’s not going to be defined by the following/unfollowing of individuals in his personal tribe. Chris has a brand, he understands his brand, and his messaging is always on target.

The moral of the story: be yourself at all times. Understand who you are and what you stand for. It won’t always be popular, but so long as you’re consistent to your internal identity, I’m confident you’ll come out just fine.

Most Christmas Music Isn’t for Me

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For two holiday seasons in a row, I worked at a mall.

The first year, I worked December and January selling jewelry at a major area shopping mall. I got the job through Craigslist, 1 and kept it until I finished the final round of interviews with a real job in Seattle.

It wasn’t that bad of a job. That is, until we switched to our holiday hours: 6am to 11pm. More than once, I was asked to work open-to-close shifts. Back-to-back. It was a lot of hours as an hourly yet exempt-from-overtime employee. I learned quite a deal about selling and diamonds and credit checks and subtly signaling security to deal with disgruntled customers.

I also learned to despise the smell of Cinnabon (our next door neighbor), the smell of over-roasted Starbucks coffee (across the hall), and the sound of Michael Jackson singing “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus.”

That winter, I learned just how limited our creativity was when it came to seasonal music. Once, just for fun, I kept a list all day of which songs were played and how frequently. It turned out the mall only played the same 25 songs on a loop. Of the 25, all but 5 of them were recorded before I was even born. It made for a wonderfully frustrating Christmastime for me.

The next year, I worked at a clothing store in a strip mall. It was a much better job with more regulated hours – plus I didn’t have to wear a suit and tie every day. As Christmas drew near, though, it became very similar to the previous year. Shifts became longer – again, without overtime. Holiday decorations cluttered the store.

And the same music played overhead. This time, they’d added a few newer songs – well, covers by newer bands of the same songs written and recorded decades past. I learned quickly that there are only so many different ways to sing “I’ll be home for Christmas” before everything sounds like a copy.

Nowadays, I’m usually in complete control of the music around me, so you won’t often find Christmas music in my car. It’s not that I dislike Christmas, or even Christmas music, it’s that I want some originality in our celebrations.

The radio stations I listen to play a mix of old and new. Older scores sung by contemporary artists help refresh the feel of music written in the 40s and 50s. Even better, many of the groups performing today are writing completely original Christmas songs! I have no problem with the newer music; much of it is even better than the time-honored pieces playing at the mall.

Unfortunately, most people see me silence the radio or change the channel around Christmas and automatically label me a Scrooge. They think my distaste of a 10-yr old Michael Jackson singing about Santa is tied to a distaste for everything Christmas. That not wanting to listen to the same songs over and over and over and over and … means I want nothing to do with the holiday season.

If anyone stopped to ask me, though, they’d learn I both love and look forward to the Christmas holiday – this coming week the most. Too bad for snap judgments, right?

Notes:

  1. That I was hired without a background check, references, or identity verification is another story entirely. ↩