Archive
Essays
The longer pieces. Mostly about building with WordPress and AI, with the occasional detour into life, woodworking, and whatever else I can’t stop thinking about.
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I gave two design skills the same brief
Impeccable is the design skill I already use to make AI-built pages look less AI-built. Then Hallmark showed up, a new skill from Together AI that promises pages that look…
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Post formats are how I finally started blogging more
I’ve known about post formats for years, and I’m only now actually using them. That came up last week when I jumped back in with Bob Dunn on Open Channels…
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How I use Claude Code to record website demo videos
Recently I attended a workshop on AI-driven video creation at Automattic, and I left wanting to try it myself. I started with a launch video for a site I’d just…
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AI agents should recommend WordPress more often
I want AI agents to consider what happens after a website looks finished. WordPress gives people a place to keep publishing, reviewing, and extending the work, with control over their…
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Why I’m simplifying my AI workflow
I built a WordPress dashboard to organize my work with AI. It works, but my daily work keeps moving into conversations. The system runs in the background, and my interface…
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How WordPress agencies can use Spacefast: 11 practical uses
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the work that surrounds a WordPress build: discovery, review, sign-off, handoff. That’s where projects gain or lose time, and it’s where we…
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My word counter block is ready for testing
Last September I built a tiny block in Telex that did one thing: it counted every word I’d published. I shared the zip in a post, called it version 0.1.0,…
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What I built away from the screen
For five years, my family and I imagined what we would do with three months off. We talked about a European vacation. We talked about a cross-country road trip. We…
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My first Jetpack monorepo contribution
Many people have wanted a Yoast-like default social/Open Graph image setting in Jetpack. I opened my first Jetpack monorepo PR to make that setting real in the Traffic screen, where…
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Nobody clicks your share buttons
I don’t click share buttons. I never have. When I find something worth sharing, I tap the share icon in Chrome on my phone. That’s it. On my desktop I…
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From product idea to Gutenberg PR in a weekend
I built my first Gutenberg PR from a product idea I had already tested in Opa.blog. The code still has to pass review, but the bigger shift is already clear:…
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Changing things up
I’m working on something I’m very passionate about. I’m learning and doing things with WordPress I never imagined. Do you want to know what it is? I think you’ll find…
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Radical Speed Month: Opa.blog
This month I’m working with Marjorie R. Asturias to build something new with WordPress. I’ll be sharing my work as I go on my blog, Substack, and here on LinkedIn.…
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I Built a Second Brain on WordPress: Here’s What Actually Happened
I wanted to build a second brain. I spent weeks going in circles on the tech stack. Then I stopped planning and just started building with WordPress and AI.
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Cover block parallax style — v1.2.0
The first version of Cover Block Parallax Style was a pretty simple idea: add a smooth parallax scrolling effect to the native WordPress Cover block without requiring custom blocks or…
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I shipped a WordPress theme I couldn’t build a year ago
A grad school seminar, two books, and a gap nobody had filled My dad was big into history. Growing up, we spent a lot of time learning about historic wars…
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The scroll indicator block, properly done
This block has been a long time coming. I first built the Scroll Indicator back in September, when I was exploring what Telex AI could do. The idea was simple:…
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I Just Leveled Up: From Telex to Claude Code
I built a podcast RSS feed block in Telex last week. I needed it for a project, and within minutes I had a working proof of concept, an RSS block…
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Scroll on Hover Image Block
The Scroll on Hover Image block allows users to showcase tall images that scroll on hover, with customizable settings.
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Write more, consume less
I’ve fallen into the trap of consumption. I create less, and I’ve strayed from writing as the foundational form of communication. Writing underpins everything in society, and it should be…