A couple of weeks ago, WordPress training guy Bob Dunn set up a survey to find out “how you learn WordPress”. We promised we’d follow up when the results came in, and you can see the macro answer above and everything else if you follow the link below.

And what we take away from this is that perception is reality.

That matters quite a bit. WordPress is both powerful and flexible, but because there are so many variables that effect what WordPress “is” to you, you need to understand not only the answers you get to questions, but also what your questions actually meant.

Wait … isn’t understanding what your questions meant the responsibility of the person answering them?

The guys at StackExchange seem to miss this point fairly consistently. Volunteers at WordPress.org are better, if only sometimes. What about Bob Dunn? What about The WordPress Helpers? What about you?

To his credit, Bob acknowledged (but of course refuted) that the answers to his question suggest that what he does for a living really isn’t necessary. We agree. One-on-one WordPress training is the absolute most useful way to  get the job done … for regular people, with questions that need expert-driven, give-it-to-me-now-so-I-can-get-on-with-my-day answers. How you learn WordPress is a function of who you are.

[clickToTweet tweet=”How You Learn WordPress Depends on Who You Are” quote=”How you learn WordPress is a function of who you are”]

We expected that more people would prefer personalized training, but we also acknowledged that if Bob got a preponderance of geeky types responding that something more like what came back should be expected. Like Bob Dunn, we’re say this isn’t backpedaling, but feel free to disagree; that would be the “perception is reality” thing popping up again.

But on to you.

If you’re receiving training, the only perception that matters to your reality is yours. If you’re delivering it, on the other hand, you need to remember that if people don’t understand what YOU understand, you need to adjust your message.

And that’s ultimately what The WordPress Helpers is about.