Code, Leadership & the Remote Dev Life

Category: Development

Tips, techniques, and deep dives into PHP coding, architecture, and tools—focused on writing cleaner, faster, and more maintainable code.

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 problems—things were getting sluggish, and I couldn’t figure out why. That’s when I discovered the magic (and danger) of lazy loading, and why eager loading is a tool every developer needs in…

July 8, 2025
How to Implement MySQL Pagination in PHP (Step-by-Step Guide)

Pagination: it’s how you turn “Here’s a mullion rows” into “Here’s 20 rows per page” without melting your server. Alright, before we dive in—this 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. I’ll wait. 😎 Still here? Great.…

July 7, 2025
10 PHP Performance Pitfalls and How to Fix Them Like a Pro

Let’s be real—most PHP performance issues aren’t caused by exotic edge cases. They’re caused by small mistakes that quietly accumulate until your server starts sweating. Over the years, I’ve fallen into every performance trap in the book—and watched others do the same. So here’s a list of the top 10 PHP performance pitfalls I’ve seen…

July 3, 2025
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 user’s problem? Is the performance snappy? All valid questions—but often, we forget one critical piece: the developer’s experience building and maintaining that plugin. Developer Experience (DX) isn’t just an internal concern—it has a…

July 1, 2025
How to Onboard a New Developer to Your Plugin Codebase

Bringing a new developer into your plugin project can go one of two ways: smooth and productive—or completely chaotic. I’ve seen both. Whether you’re working on a public WordPress plugin or a custom solution for a client, onboarding a new dev isn’t just about giving them access to the repo and saying “good luck.” It’s…

June 24, 2025
The Hidden Costs of Not Documenting Your Plugin Code

We’ve all done it. You’re deep in the flow, building out a plugin feature, squashing bugs, hitting milestones—and you think, “I’ll document this later.” Then later becomes never. I used to think documentation was a “nice-to-have.” Something you do when the real work is done. But over the years—especially maintaining my own WordPress plugins and…

June 17, 2025
Why I Still Love Developing for WordPress After 25 Years

It’s been 20+ years since I started developing with WordPress, and a lot has changed in the tech world. Frameworks have come and gone, trends have shifted, and countless tools have promised to “replace WordPress.” And yet—after all this time—I still find myself coming back to it. Not out of nostalgia or habit, but because…

June 10, 2025