Tidbits from Brian - Issue #9
Inflation blues or opportunity?
As the cost of housing, food, and gas increased over the last year, I tried to shrug them off at first. But I think we're beyond that point now. Paying close to $100 for a tank of gas (many outside the US pay more!) or $10 for sliced turkey is absurd. Nobody is getting pay raises to keep up with rising inflation or what some might call currency debasement.
I've been cutting back a lot over the past six months (full-on college Top Ramen mode). Why? Besides things costing more, now is also, ironically, the best time to invest. It's anyone's guess on how far or bad things will get. That's why I continue to dollar-cost-average (DCA) into stocks, Bitcoin, etc. Put it this way, if things don't go back up (which they always do), we're at an end of the world situation, so it doesn't matter anyway.
And while it might be a great opportunity, it's never fun watching things go down or bleed. But I'm not about to try and time this market, it's about "time in the market."
With that being said, I think a lot of us probably feel like this in the morning after checking the markets.👇
Updates ✍️
GenerateBlocks 1.5 is finally here! I'm more excited about this update than anything else in the WordPress space this year. Why? Because it contains dynamic data, query loops, and inline background images. I've used the WP Show Posts plugin for years, and now I can ditch this and do everything with GenerateBlocks. Make sure to also check out the new pattern library!
Version 1.9.2 (rolled out middle of June) was a massive update for our Perfmatters plugin. Thanks to all the feedback we got from customers, we've been able to make many reliability improvements and get some annoying bugs squashed. Our Unused CSS feature is also now officially out of beta.
I'm regularly working with clients needing to add filters or snippets of code to their sites. I decided it was time to write a quick tutorial on how to add custom PHP to your WordPress site (the easy way). Check it out.
Interesting things 🔎
Misc.
From VAT MOSS, to Brexit (HMRC), to now Making Tax Digital (MTD). I really wish the UK would stop changing things.
Ulysses now has tables! Not that I really need these, but it's still my favorite writing app.
Private Access Tokens: eliminating CAPTCHAs on iPhones and Macs with open standards.
Picture-in-Picture and multi-pinning are available for Google Meet in Chrome. This is a great update!
Internet Explorer was once synonymous with the Internet, but it’s now gone for good.
How does Cloudways not allow you to add existing accounts for collaboration? Ran into this recently.
I somehow missed the announcement about LinkedIn getting native dark mode. See how to turn it on.
RIP for the Atom editor. I use Sublime, but I know many out there used this.
Check out CropScore, a cool little image cropper for content creators.
If you're curious, 500 songs in lossless format are approximately 28 GB, whereas the same # in standard quality is a little over 8 GB. 🎵
WordPress
Thinking through the WordPress admin experience. Wow, check out some of these early concepts!
WP Engine acquires five plugins from Delicious Brains.
Elementor lays off 15% of workforce, citing rising inflation and impending recession. Ironically, they also just acquired Strattic.
Using a WordPress theme versus building from scratch comes down to time management for me. See other answers.
It's disappointing that the whole mentality around acquisitions in the WordPress space is that the product/service is immediately destroyed.
Performance
It's very annoying when a WordPress theme loads the entire Material Icons library (a whopping 128 KB) when only two icons are used. 🤦
Kinsta has been on fire recently. They launched another two data centers in Columbus, Ohio 🇺🇸 and Dallas, Texas. 🤠
Marketing
How will affiliates be impacted by Google’s third-party cookie ban. A good overview.
I recently trashed 27 blog posts. 🗑️ As an SEO, don't be afraid to delete bad/old content. See more of my SEO tips.
Crypto (not financial advice)
The SEC denied Grayscale's application to convert GBTC to a spot Bitcoin ETF. They are now suing.
A great thread on how we're witnessing the biggest leverage reset in crypto history.
Enormous outflows from the largest Bitcoin ETF may have triggered the Bitcoin crash.
Is Hyperinflation coming? Good chat with Preston Pysh.
Binance, in the US, has launched zero trading fees to buy Bitcoin! They also reduced withdrawal fees by 60%. Love this.
25 brief, minute-long lessons and moments of insight on the under-discussed yet critical relationship between human rights and money.
Jack Dorsey’s TBD is building an extra decentralized "Web5" on Bitcoin.
Jack Maller's interview with Business Insider on Bitcoin, Lightning, and Proof of Work versus Proof of Stake.
Coinbase is phasing out its trader-friendly "Pro" exchange.
We understand better how little we understand inflation. - Powell 🤦
A great video on why dollar cost averaging is the best strategy.
PayPal now lets users transfer Bitcoin/Ethereum to external wallets.
Now's a great time to be accumulating Bitcoin. Here are 10 different ways you can stack sats for free.
Debt, inflation, and the bigger picture. An excellent free course from The Looking Glass Education.
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If you're ever in the Scottsdale, AZ area, hit me up, and we can grab a coffee! ☕️👋