Friday, October 31st, 2008
At the Future of Web Apps Expo 2008, Tim Bray was the keynote speaker on the second day. Unlike many keynotes (which generally tend to be upbeat), Tim spoke about the economic tough times ahead, and what you can do to get though them. There’s some very solid advice in this presentation.
The Future of Web […]
At the Future of Web Apps Expo 2008, Tim Bray was the keynote speaker on the second day. Unlike many keynotes (which generally tend to be upbeat), Tim spoke about the economic tough times ahead, and what you can do to get though them. There’s some very solid advice in this presentation.
The Future of Web Apps returns to Miami, February 23-24 2009, with speakers including Michael Arrington, Daniel Burka, Jason Fried, Joel Spolsky, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
The Future of Web Apps returns to Miami on 23 and 24 Feb 2009. The awesome speaker lineup includes Michael Arrington, Daniel Burka, Jason Fried, Joel Spolsky, and Gary Vaynerchuk. Book now as there are a limited number of conference passes for just $200 (normally $395) - be very quick as they won't last long!
Great talk - the part about “designer vs developer; don’t be just one” resonates with me right now, just posted on that. I think it’s very much possible for designers to learn how to code. It’s (sort of) ok if the code sucks - as long as it works. But the other way around? Coders learning how to design? Quite a different story. You can’t hide bad design. It’s out there. If it sucks, well - it sucks.
I got lucky. I happen to be married to a great designer. Hehe.
Everyone should get lucky don’t you agree? And by get lucky, I mean coders lucky enough to receive some straight unbiased feedback and constructive criticizm on their design skills, which I find are often mostly attributed to a very very narrow, and sometimes self-righteous, point of view.
Even if a coder is 99% accurate, and that knowledge is high quality in and of itself, if he (or she) can only see 5% of the bigger picture then all of his/her ability is probably worth only 5% of what it should be (or could be) to people holding the money. But maybe that 5% is enough for him (or her).
I would argue that it’s not just advantageous, it’s an essential must to learn how to design better (if you’re a coder) so that you will broaden your perspective. One of the key pay-offs is that you will stop wasting time (from the very get-go) coding useless components as you’ll begin to recognize the patterns of what works and what doesn’t.
I know that 5% wasn’t nearly enough for me, and so I made some changes in my career. I started by walking away from an employer who put me up on a web-guru super-god pedestal and had just offered me a raise. I am definitely no such thing and nobody else is either, and finally my consciense won me over and I walked away. I took on a new job at a completely different kind of company and before long I realized how naive I really was. I learned a great deal, and I’m a better human being for it because yet one more self-righteous and narrow-minded coder has repented, had his sins washed away, and will stop torturing innocent web users with crappy designs.
Of course, this all depends on whether you’re satisfied with having a mediocre impact on the web or if you want much more than that.