Blogging Begins

Hello World… Isn’t that what every developer worth his salt is supposed to lead off with? Guess I can check that off my bucket list…

But more accurately, hello websphere! or whatever the cool kids are calling the interwebs these days. If you don’t know me, and couldn’t tell by my web address or logo, my name is PeterJohn Hunt, and it’s nice to meet you!

Who am I?

So what is this website you have stumbled upon? Well, this is my personal blog, which will be largely focused on development and problem solving of all kinds, although it will probably primarily be web-related. I plan to write my experiences, both past and present, goals, and general thoughts, mostly for my own benefit, to have it somewhere I can look back to, as well as possibly for the benefit of others to learn from what I have learned, am learning, and desire to learn.

Why start now?

Well, many reasons really. I’ve planned and thought about blogging for a long time, partially because of the many blog posts I’ve read and the impact they have made on me, and wanting to give back. Currently I work in a environment where open source is the primary backbone of a lot of the projects and work I do, and with that comes a pretty neat community of sharing and caring. I have benefited a lot from the open source philosophy and have long wanted to find a way to be not only a consumer, but a provider. I can honestly say as a self-taught web developer, that blog posts and others sharing their knowledge is literally the reason I am able to put food on the table for myself, my wife, and my son — and for that I am extremely grateful.

The inspiration

I’ve long planned to write a blog, and was constantly inspired to make that plan happen by people that I look up to, like Tom Mcfarlin and Pippin Williamson as well as twitter, Wordcamp posts, the open source community, WPTavern, and the many sites that have played an integral role in making me the developer I am today.

What took so long?

The first step is always the hardest, and sometimes it takes scraping off the fluff and jumping.

They say failing to plan is planning to fail… For me it wasn’t a case of failing to plan, but that I planned too much. For so long I’ve been held back by thinking that, as a self-proclaimed web developer, I wasn’t allowed to blog unless it was on a website I custom developed. Well, as the saying goes, “you’re your own worst client.” When building websites, I usually have the customer’s needs and goals to rely on when pushing forward and understanding the end goal. This is a lot harder when I’m working for myself and don’t have a technical goal, except for the elusive and general “start blogging”.

The push

How did I get out of that rut? I finally realized that my plan to blog was similar to my plans to learn new things like react, docker, and build a cross platform app: The first step is always the hardest, and sometimes it takes scraping off the fluff and jumping.

Sometimes you have to take a step back from where you are to truly see where you want to go.

So I decided to start at zero, and scrape away my preconceived ideas about what I needed to have in place before I could start blogging. I came to a point where I’ve been doing so much development, that I needed to pick up a different outlet, because frankly, I’m burnt out. I enjoy problem solving, creativity, learning, collaboration, coding. But too much of something good can quickly be overwhelming. I want to diversify my portfolio per se. I’ve found that attempting to workout has improved my problem solving and has made me a better developer. Similarly, I think writing and attempting to learn together with other people through blogging will do the same thing. Sometimes you have to take a step back from where you are to truly see where you want to go.

Moving forward

So here I am. My first blog post, a great theme by Array – a direct ripoff from Tom Mcfarlin (although I hear he is gonna update his site, which won’t make me look quite as much of a copycat), and a world of opportunity to learn new things. Check back soon for new posts!