79 – Keep educating yourself about WordPress / JavaScript / Gutenberg with Zac Gordon

In this episode:

Discussion – Red flag warnings for web designers – [4:30]

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Interview – Keep educating yourself about WordPress / JavaScript / Gutenberg with Zac Gordon – [33:34]

Ending Fact – What version of WordPress are people using? – [1:12:19]

I really like Zac Gordon. He’s one of those effervescent people who just exude warmth and thoughtfulness.

I recently watched his talk at WordCamp London 2018 and he was such a great public speaker; able to chat to the room and not talk at them. His talk was about Gutenberg… because, well, you know… it’s coming!

He really knows his stuff too! What’s that saying…? “If you can teach someone a subject, it shows that you really understand it”, well, something like that anyway! Zac has been in the WordPress education space for years, teaching many, many people the in’s and out’s of WordPress. He’s worked for companies like Treehouse as well as offering courses which he manages himself. Courses like his “Learn Vanilla JavaScript Deeply Course“, and The “Gutenberg Development Course“, there’s so much great content that he’s produced over the years.

When I think about my time at school, the fond memories that I have were of the teachers who were fun and kind and made the learning interesting. I think these are characteristics that Zac has in spades. His delivery is carefully thought out, it’s warm and friendly. A great set if attributes for an online teacher.

We find out how he got started with web design, working on the ‘Interact’ Open Source education project, and later moved into working with WordPress. He worked in schools and then decided to get away from the politics of that set up and take his future into his own hands creating online courses.

In terms of JavaScript, Zac explains why WordPress developers have been told that they need to know JavaScript ‘Deeply’. What does this really mean, what do we need to know and how can we go about getting that knowledge? Hint – Zac’s Learn Vanilla JavaScript Deeply Course!

Then we move onto Gutenberg! Don’t we always these days! Zac really knows his stuff in this arena, he’s got his Gutenberg Development Course after all.

He tells us what he thinks the impact of Gutenberg will be for the WordPress community, and how he thinks it’s time that this change happened so that the future of WordPress is secure for new users who expect this kind of editing experience.

Lovely guest, lovely interview. Go check it out!