When we started this interview series a little while back, I never expected to see such a high level of involvement. Most of the people that we reached out to agreed to do the interview straight away.
I was expecting weeks to go by before we get their answers back. However, the WordPress community keeps surprising me all the time (in a good way).
The same thing happened with @Rarst, aka Andrey Savchenko, whom I first met on Twitter. Actually, I met him in Berlin, volunteering for my first WordCamp, but we never really talked. I was busy volunteering, and he kept his distance. I didn’t really know what to make of Rarst. Plus he’s one of those people who doesn’t follow you back. 🙂
One year later, we met again in his hometown. This time Rarst was a first-time (and last-time, as he claims) organizer at the first WordCamp Kiev. I was the only Romanian there, so I couldn’t swing by unnoticed.
Turns our Rarst is one of the people that I spent the best time talking with at a WordCamp. A cynical being, yet with the right amount of irony, it was a pleasure to discover a kindred spirit.
Here are Rarst’s answers about his affair with WordPress. You can find them too perky or even too blunt, but surely you won’t find them boring!
Enjoy the read:
Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko Interview
When and how did you start working with WordPress? Is there an interesting story here?
In 2011, I quit my day job and switched to WordPress development working remotely.
The most dramatic version of this story I could muster had been an opening essay of HeroPress project.
What’s your technique for staying productive throughout the day?
I look for engaging tasks, which make time fly and things happen. When I need some help to get focused I use Pomodoro timer.
How do you define “being successful”?
What do you like to do when you’re not WordPress-ing?
What do you wish more people knew about WordPress?
query_posts() is bad for you.
Oh, and how GPL actually works.
Who’s doing things that are just cutting-edge and incredible in the WordPress space right now?
If I have to name names, Giuseppe Mazzapica and Alain Schlesser. They had been producing incredible code and content on advanced topics lately.
Describe the WordPress community in one word.
What’s the one thing you’d like to change about WordPress?
I have no interest to change WordPress left. I learned to let it be what it wants to be and not worry about it.
What’s the main threat to WordPress these days? Other platforms like Ghost, or maybe things like Squarespace?
It chose to focus on users and pay for that with awful experience for developers. It is now the second most dreaded technology, according to annual StackOverflow survey.
WordPress moves higher and higher, but high is not always the same as forward.
What are your recommendations for a WordPress novice?
That concludes our Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko interview. If you have any questions, please submit them in the comments, and we’ll somehow convince Rarst to come back and answer them. 🙂
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