Author: Mike Lopez
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How Eager Loading Works in ORM (With PHP Examples)
When I first started using ORMs in PHP, I loved how clean and readable my code became. But I quickly ran into performance problemsāthings were getting sluggish, and I couldnāt figure out why. Thatās when I discovered the magic (and danger) of lazy loading, and why eager loading is a tool every developer needs in…
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How to Implement MySQL Pagination in PHP (Step-by-Step Guide)
Pagination: itās how you turn āHereās a mullion rowsā into āHereās 20 rows per page” without melting your server. Alright, before we dive ināthis post assumes you already know how to connect to MySQL using PHP’s PDO. If that sounds like gibberish, hit pause and go learn that first. Iāll wait. š Still here? Great.…
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10 PHP Performance Pitfalls and How to Fix Them Like a Pro
Letās be realāmost PHP performance issues arenāt caused by exotic edge cases. Theyāre caused by small mistakes that quietly accumulate until your server starts sweating. Over the years, Iāve fallen into every performance trap in the bookāand watched others do the same. So hereās a list of the top 10 PHP performance pitfalls Iāve seen…
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Scaling PHP Projects: Management Tactics That Actually Work for Remote Teams
Scaling a PHP project while leading a remote team can feel like juggling fireāwith one hand tied behind your back. The good news? Itās not magic. Itās management. And if you do it right, it actually scales. Hereās whatās worked for me. 1. Codebase ā Product ā Project This sounds obvious, but itās a trap…
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How to Lead a Remote PHP Team Without Burning Out Your Developers
When I first started managing a remote PHP team, I made all the rookie mistakes: too many meetings, too few boundaries, and way too much Slack. Burnout wasnāt immediateābut it was inevitable. Iāve since changed the way I lead. Hereās what Iāve learned about keeping remote PHP developers productive without running them into the ground.…
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The Leadership Skill No One Talks About: Patience
We love to talk about decisiveness. About boldness, charisma, vision. We glamorize āmove fast and break thingsā leadership like itās the only kind that works. But thereās one leadership skill that rarely gets any spotlightāpatience. Itās not sexy. It doesnāt make great TED Talk soundbites. But in my experience, patience is one of the most…
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What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Dev Manager
When I first stepped into a dev manager role, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what was coming. Iād been around long enough, led a few projects, mentored juniors, dealt with deadlines. Seemed like a natural next step. Spoiler: I was wrong. Becoming a dev manager isnāt a promotionāitās a whole new…
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Why Developer Experience Matters in Plugin UX
When we talk about plugin UX, we usually think about the end user. Is the UI intuitive? Does the feature solve the userās problem? Is the performance snappy? All valid questionsābut often, we forget one critical piece: the developerās experience building and maintaining that plugin. Developer Experience (DX) isnāt just an internal concernāit has a…
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Making Tough Calls: A Leaderās Daily Reality
When I first became a team lead, I thought ātough decisionsā were rareāsomething you made in a crisis. Big stuff, like letting someone go or killing a project. What I didnāt realize is that making hard calls is a daily part of leadershipāand usually, no one claps when you do it. No roadmap tells you…
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Aligning Roadmaps With Team Capacity
Early in my career, roadmaps felt like a wishlist. Marketing wanted X, sales wanted Y, and weāengineeringāwere somehow supposed to make it all happen. And when we couldnāt, we were labeled blockers. It took years (and more than a few failed quarters) to realize the issue wasnāt execution. It was misalignment. We were promising more…