Hope for your financial life and beyond

Thesis vs. Genesis – It’s All About the Cup Holders

2007 Chrysler SebringEvery car that I have ever shopped for has the same basic components. Four tires. Car body. Engine. Steering mechanisms. Those components help me get to where I want to go. Now the quality and configuration of those components varies greatly among manufacturers but the basic essence of the machine itself remains the same from model to model.

If you have ever shopped day after day after day for a new vehicle you know that sometimes all the models begin to blend together and look the same.  So we look for ways, sometimes really silly ones, to differentiate between models to help us make our decision. I’ve seen this happen in my own life and I call it the “Cup Holder Syndrome.”

In essence the Cup Holder Syndrome says that it’s the ancillary things that sell the car. You slide in for a test drive, see 10 places in the vehicle to put a drink and think that’s cool. Or maybe you’re impressed by the lights on the dash, the color scheme, the power seats, or the way the stereo sounds. These things have little to do with the functioning of the car and are not the main reasons we purchase a car. But they do stick in our mind and can help sway our decision.

I found the same principle at work when trying to decide between the Thesis (by DIYThemes) and Genesis (by StudioPress) frameworks for my recent blog upgrade.

There are bloggers much smarter than I that can take you through a very technical, detailed comparison of the two frameworks. You can find some quality posts about that here (at Traffic Generation Cafe). I read at least a dozen posts like these and they were very helpful. Bottom line, technically speaking for a newbie blogger like myself, there does not seem to be much difference between the two frameworks. They both could get me where I want to go.

So what little things swayed me to go with the Genesis framework and the Eleven40 theme? That’s right, it was the cup holders baby. Here are some legitimate and silly things that ran through my mind as I did my research:

1. The DIYThemes homepage for Thesis really turned me off.  Not very professional. Looks too much like an advertisement and it’s such…a…long…long…long…page. Can I get to the end of it already? I just had to keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and… Kind of got lost in it all.

2. I love the name Genesis (Part 1). Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning…” Hey, this is a spiritually focused blog at times. I mean my blog name comes straight from a Bible verse. Must be a sign from above.

3. I love the name Genesis (Part 2). Thesis sounds too much like going back to grad school to get my PhD. Yuck!

The word Genesis is all about new beginnings. It’s about creating something special. It’s about Captain Kirk facing off with Kahn in Star Trek II, battling to gain control of the Genesis device and…oops… started heading in a weird direction there.

4. The StudioPress Mall. I love one stop shopping. I purchased the Genesis framework and Eleven40 child theme all in one place. No running from store to store trying to figure out if it’s all going to work together. The Eleven40 theme installed quickly and easily over the Genesis framework without any glitches – kinda like they were meant to be together.

5. Videos. Loved the videos at the StudioPress website to watch ahead of time. They really eased my anxiety about the changeover process.

6. Unlimited support and updates from StudioPress. I’m a newbie when it comes to blogging, only having been at it about a year. I need unlimited everything!

7. Darren Rowse uses it. So I’m following the crowd here. But he’s had a little success at ProBlogger hasn’t he? Maybe he knows something I don’t.

8. Brian Gardner (founder of StudioPress) shares my name and he also loves running. Silly reasons, I know.

9. My birth time. I was born at 11:41 am. OK…I had to stretch that a bit in my mind but it was too close to Eleven40 for me not to notice.

There you have it. The somewhat silly, not-so-technical reasons that swayed me to chose Genesis over Thesis. I’m a week into my new digs and couldn’t be happier.

What framework do you use? What do you like about it? Have you ever fallen prey to the Cup Holder Syndrome when purchasing an item? 

Image Credit

Next Post: Funding College: Should I Work or Do SAT Prep?

Prior Post: Do I Get Gold Cufflinks With That Tent?

I hope you enjoyed that post. Want more?
Sign up to receive my blog posts via email and get your free gift...
99 Ways to Spend Less and Save More

Privacy Guarantee: I will not share your email with anyone.

Comments

  1. I am actually switching to Genesis since I don’t like Thesis 2.0 and I am not sure how long they’ll be supporting the earlier versions.

    Thanks for the shout-out!

  2. Chris @ Stumble Forward says

    I use to have Thesis for a long time and them someone told me about Genesis and how much easier it is to use. One thing I like about Genesis is that it’s very easy to update. On top of that I heard that Studiopress will be releasing a Genesis 2.0 soon which is HTML 5 compatible.

  3. I think you probably made a wise choice. I use Thesis myself, but purchased it a few years ago when it was a bit different. They recently came out with a 2.0 version that was supposed to be so much better, but myself and a lot of other people have just hated it. I may be moving to Genesis myself soon!

    • I have no experience with Thesis so I can’t really comment on how their framework functions. I’ve been impressed with Genesis and the many plugins they have available. I’ve installed a few of them and like what they do for me here at the site.

Trackbacks

  1. Weekly Marketing Skinny: June 15, 2013 says:

    […] Thesis vs. Genesis – It’s All About the Cup Holders – Brian Fourman at luke1428.com […]

Speak Your Mind

*