Why am I using Thesis?

You might have noticed that I am using a theme designed by Chris Pearson called Thesis. Why would someone who has designed some of the most popular blogs on the internet use a pre-built theme? Let me explain:

To start with, I am friends with Chris and I have watched him develop Thesis. I remember looking at his first blog written in MoveableType and wondering why he was using MT as his content management system. I have looked at his code for a number of years and watched him become one of the best developers on the web. Thesis is without a doubt one of the best premium themes available for any WordPress user. However, it is also one of two themes that I think any serious WordPress developer or designer should consider using, the other being Carrington by the guys at Crowd Favorite.

While Carrington is free, I happily shelled out $87 for a copy of Thesis - initially just to play with it, but the more I played with it the more I realized that it is not just a theme - it is a WordPress framework that lets me spend time designing and customizing my site, not worrying about the back end code. Thesis is to WordPress what Rails is to Ruby, or Django to Python. It makes taking your idea from conception to live site significantly faster by knocking, literally, weeks off of development time.

Summary:

• Thesis reduces development time considerably, letting me spend time on what I’m best at: designing user interfaces.
• I do not have time to spend countless hours worrying about whether my personal site is working perfectly - I have clients and a job for that.
• Thesis allows me endless ability to customize the site, and when I am done tinkering I doubt I will be using much of Chris’ original design.
• Thesis comes pre-built with a flawless typographic grid that lets me play with fonts and sizes without doing any long division.

So what are you waiting for? You should be using it, too.