Web Monkeys Who Stop Learning
Just in the last couple of days I have read no less than three articles that all bring up something I have felt for a long time: Web professionals who refuse to update their skills and insist on using outdated methods can no longer be called web professionals.
Some will call me an elitist for saying that. But think about it. Why should web professionals not be required to know their craft? I find that attitude – which is held by many in the industry and by many more outside of it – insulting to those of us who work hard every day to keep up with current best practices.
I am very happy to see others voicing their opinions on this. Ian Lloyd has posted an interview with Andy Clarke at Accessify: Interview with Andy Clarke (AKA Accessibility, the gloves come off). Here’s a quote that could have been from me:
There are now so many web sites, blogs or
publications devoted to helping people learn standards and accessible
techniques that there are now no excuses not to work with semantic code
or CSS. Those people still
delivering nested table layout, spacer gifs or ignoring accessibility
can no longer call themselves web professionals.
The gloves come off indeed. If you want to comment on that quote, hop on over to Accessibility, the gloves come off at And all that Malarkey.
I completely agree with what Andy says. There is no
reason to call anyone who will not make an effort to keep their skills
up-to-date a professional. Note that I’m pointing my finger at those
who do not want to learn, not those who simply do not know any better,
but are willing to learn about modern web design and development.
Molly E. Holzschlag follows up with Web Standards and The New Professionalism, where she notes that:
The heart of the issue is simple: We must know our
craft! And what we don’t know, we must be willing to say we don’t know
and be open to learning
The key word for me here is craft. There are so
many people working in the web industry that just don’t seem to care
about what they do for a living. There are so many people that just do
whatever it takes to muddle through or “get the job done”, which is a
rather popular phrase used to defend outdated methods.
I don’t know everything about web development. Far from it. But when
I don’t know something, I admit it and go looking for knowledge. Or ask
someone who does know.
Finally there’s John Oxton, who delivers the following message in Why it’s now ex-HTML (certain words censored):
What I want is HTML that kicks up a royal f*****g stink if it isn’t treated properly. HTML
that takes no s**t, with a built in big flashy message (GO AWAY AND
LEARN ABOUT ME!) for people who refuse to take the time to learn this
super simple language and who refuse to refine their understanding.
John is talking about XHTML served as XML
here. I know that many do not believe in letting the client (as in web
browser) display error messages to the person visiting the site instead
of trying to figure out what the author actually meant. Let’s leave
that out of the discussion, and instead imagine that all web browsers
did display such error messages. Don’t you think that would make a
whole lot of so-called web professionals awfully interested in learning
how to fix those errors?
Yes, if HTML had been that strict from the beginning,
the web would not have become what it is today because the learning
curve would have been too steep for the masses. But the web is more
mature now than it was over a decade ago, when the first graphical
browsers appeared. It’s about time for web professionals to follow.
Filed under: Web Development
I agree with your opinion.
It is however, very difficult to stay current with all the “new” stuff always coming along. Over the years I have seen many (and I mean many) new “hot products” come out. The geeks scramble to learn the new product and as soon as you get proficient, another new one comes along that does basically the same thing. All the managers want it, so, here we go again. Been there, done that.
I see the shortcomings and confusion in web development as a severe lack of standards and testing. Coming from a mainframe background (I know some of you are saying, what the hell is a mainframe ? Jesh, this guy must be a friggin dinosaur !), development of applications was strictly structured. Big on planning, big on testing. It would literally takes months (yes, I said months) to get a simple, one line code change of a mainframe screen into production, just because of all the planning and testing involved in getting it there. I know, I did it. That’s frustrating. Now, I am not saying that this should happen with web application development, but I surely believe that more structure and testing is needed. We do not want to loose the power of immediacy that the web offers. We just need to do more testing. It is way too loose.
You see the failure of testing everyday with the new list of patches and fixes that are offered by some of the “expert” companies in the field. They put our new releases to satisfy the stockholders and basically say “screw the little guy. We will fix any problems found later”. Later is usually when a new backdoor is found which basically could bring the internet to it’s knees. Too bad these “experts”’ aren’t held financially liable for all the grief they cause. They make the software purchasers their testers. Not a bad deal. They pay twice. But that’s another subject altogether.
You will see when you have been around as long as I have (that’s right, I am a friggin dinosaur) it is all the same crap ( and a bitter dinosaur at that ! ). Web development needs to move forward by coming to a real agreement on standards on how web browsers handle the things that developers do. This proprietary garbage has to stop, otherwise nothing will really change.
I feel that the web is really in it’s infancy. We have to train this baby to run by doing it the right way.
you make an excellent point. most ‘innovative’ web developers really seem to be just throwing paint at the wall- sometimes a color really sticks out, so everyone runs to it.
this farce they are calling ‘web 2.0′ all over the net is an example of the hysteria we have over our own ideas. blogs- rss- social, open source madness. turned out web 2.0 was a coined marketing phrase, and we just happen to have a few new emerging ways of sharing information that came from some indpendenet thinkers using existing web developing in a unique way. truth be told, not a lot of it will survive as it is now- but it is fun for developer geeks to go out and play now anyways.
i suppose what the point is here- the aggravation comes from web professionals advetising themselves as such- or egotistically playing the part, when they haven’t bothered to even stay abreast of whats going on in their field. this is not to say all developers should be writing complex macormedia scripts fueled by xml to spit out promotions to blogs, pdas, and cell phones all at once like it’s second nature just because the latest open source ‘thing’ is being embraced by the new wave developers- but at least embrace the changes. move with the tides. be ready to keep learning. you can see this not happening when developers either ignore accessibility or ignore the team that tries to integrate it. and there it is- the hidden meaning.
kevin, i see where you are going there- but my agenda in stealing and toiling this article up into my blog was to point out that many developers out there just stop. dead stop. css is here to stay- accessibility is proven essential- and yet many developers refuse to acknowledge it. since we work together, i feel its important to let you off the hook- i know you don’t work with css and accessibility standards like i do. you do, however, allow for me and lee to jump and make it happen- and along the way you pick our tricks. this is more than many developers out there are charging for people for- even an old goat like yourself is using open source like wordpress- checking out css- and pushing cold fusion to the next level!