About Me

I work with WordPress, AI, and real-world website problems every day.

My name is Dave. I spend a lot of time working through the kinds of website problems real people run into. Most of my work revolves around WordPress, site performance, and uncomplicating explanations.

Oh, and I use AI in practical, collaborative, human-managed ways.

(Not me, but basically what it looks like when I smile for pictures)

Beliefs

What shapes the way I work.

I write for people

Are you tired of copy/paste replies with irrelevant information because the support you’re talking to isn’t actually paying attention?

Yeah, I don’t do that.

I try to make things easy to read by breaking them down so regular people can understand.

I use AI collaboratively

AI is a highly useful tool if you use it the right way. It takes a lot more than a great prompt, or a lot of random back and forth.

I use a method called AI-Augmented Development to collaborate with the AI in much the same way you would with other people.

And I check to ensure it makes sense.

I look for a path forward

Not everything can be solved by one person, but I certainly do what I can to help. This is very different from others who push clients off, saying it’s not their problem.

If I can’t solve your problem, that’s one thing, but I’ll try to point you in the right direction to get it addressed —and I’ll explain WHY I think that’s the way to go and give you the information you may need.

Never Asked Questions

9 random things about me.

Phantasm is my favorite horror film

Absolutely, 100% my favorite horror film and horror series.

I have a lot of autographs

A wall of my office is covered in autographs from a lot of different celebrities, including Sarah Dumont, Marilu Henner, GZA, Shannen Doherty, Mike Colter, and Jen Taylor (Cortona). My interest is kind of all over the place.

I live in rural North Carolina

From time to time, I’ll write about things related to rural life, but suffice to say, I live in one of those towns that barely has any people in it, and I like it that way.

I built the WordPress theme you’re looking at

Currently, it’s a work in progress. I’ll post on the site once it’s available.

I am a married father of two

My wife loves me for some reason, and unfortunately, my children have grown up to be like me.

I worked in the web hosting industry for 6+ years

Because I literally was the WordPress department there, I have seen a lot of off-the-wall things in WordPress.

I own an unhealthy number of movies

Almost 1000 DVDs and Blu-rays, countless VHS, and even a laser disc. No, I don’t have a laser disc player.

I have 128GB of RAM in my desktop for no reason

Yes, it helps with some things I do, but I really cranked it up because why not?

I collect dictionaries

This became a thing a few years ago. The oldest one is from 1909. I find it very interesting to look up common words that aren’t in there because they hadn’t been invented yet.

AI Usage

How I use AI

Collaboration

I treat AI like a personal collaborator, not a magic genie. To effectively use AI the way I do, you need to engage in a lot of back-and-forth. This helps narrow down directions and guidance, research, and anything else the AI is meant to assist you with.

Ask a question, get an answer is fine for some things, but collaborative conversation, just like with people, can yield better results.

Coding & Product Development

Coming from a background in making WordPress themes and building PHP-based websites, I’ve found that AI tools like Codex and Gemini have helped tremendously. Research, planning, and code creation have become easier to knock out.

Like many coders, my go-to IDE is Cursor, though I use tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to assist with research and planning.

Media Creation

Before digital tools like my Wacom tablet, hand-drawn pencil-and-paper illustration had always been my thing. I’ve since moved into digital editing and creation of all forms, including still images and video.

AI helps me bring ideas to life faster and spin up new ideas in my head. Among my favorite tools are ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion, Flux, Google Flow, ChatGPT, Sora, and Kling.