This Damn Industry

This Damn Industry

on Dec 21st 2010 with 208 comments

Editorials on Nettuts+ are few and far between, but, given that we’re nearing the end of yet another year, I thought it might be nice to have a discussion on one sleep depriving aspect of this web development industry that we’re all privy to: it’s forever twisting and turning.

To those of you who have five or more years of experience: knowing what you know about about the steep, never-ending learning curve, would you be willing to start all over?

The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.

An Example

Take me, for example: I’m 25, and have been working in this industry, in various forms, since college. By any other corporate measurement, I’m a baby — barely worthy of opening his mouth during a team meeting. However, our particular web development industry is a bit different in this regard: we’re young. Many of the developers who are rapidly pushing the web forward are under 30; how simultaneously amazing and depressing at the same time!

Depressing? Sure: depressing. They say that, in Mathematics, if you haven’t had your great idea by the age of 30, you’ll never have it. Of course, I use the generic “they say” because I’m really referring to a line from the movie, “A Beautiful Mind” — but I digress. The advantage to youth is all around us: it’s in the music you listen to, the JavaScript frameworks you love, the tools you use, etc.

Ever notice how your favorite music artists rarely achieve the same level of “magic” in a new album a decade after they entered the music industry? Why is that?

Perhaps, when you’re young, you’re open to new ideas, and question the status quo. Or maybe, fifteen-twenty years later, you don’t have the same drive as you did before. Rocky Balboa would refer to this as the “eye of the tiger”… or the lack thereof. He once lost it…and bad things happened.

Now certainly, this doesn’t transfer over “pin-for-pin” to our little ole’ web development environment, but it’s fair to say that it does in some small form.

My Days

Even when I get paid to learn, I’ve still found that it’s impossible to keep up with the pack.

A large portion of each of my work days is spent learning new technologies. Whether that comes in the form of deciphering the CSS3 Spec, or traversing through countless blogs (thanks, Instapaper!), my job requires me to stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques. I can’t tell you how often my laptop is brought into bed, as I work on a project long after the misses has fallen asleep. My gut tells me that we’re all familiar with the ubiquitous “laptop in bed” syndrome, as well as the hot groin effect. That said, even when I get paid to learn, I’ve still found that it’s impossible to keep up with the pack. For instance, let’s review a short list of exciting new technologies or scripts that I’ve yet to play around with:

  • CoffeeScript
  • NodeJS
  • ControlJS
  • LabJS
  • Raphael
  • Ruby / Rails
  • The Kohana Framework

Perhaps even more depressing, that list only amounts to what I was able to think of within a moment or so. In another six months from now, that list will triple.

Even scarier, at 25, it stands to reason that, within five years or so, I’ll have children. Right now, save a few scoldings from my fiancée — typically when she’s ready to leave the house, while I continually say, “5 more minutes” – I’m able to spend as much time as possible coding away in a room that’s long since gone dark, after the sun went down; because, of course, I can’t be bothered to turn on the lamp when I’m working!

To the Moms and Dads

To those of you who have full-time jobs, wives (preferably just one), and children: how do you find time to continue learning? Or, maybe better put: when do you find the time?

Why do we Keep Learning?

“Two mice fell into a bowl of cream. The first mouse gave up and died right away. The second mouse fought and swam until he churned that cream into butter and he crawled his way out.” – Christopher Walken

So this brings up the question: who do we continue learning new techniques, if those same techniques will invariably become out-dated within a couple years or so? How many useless, old tech books do you have lying around the house?!

I imagine that each of us continues the learning process for a variety of reasons.

  • Passion: From time to time, I mildly complain that it seems as if I never have time to relax, and, say, play that new video game I purchased a month ago, but haven’t yet dug into. Though, if I’m honest, it’s because, during my free time, I genuinely enjoy toying around with some new framework or personal project. As you’re reading this article right now, it stands to reason that you’re the same way.
  • Obligation: Perhaps your particular job requires that you stay on top of the latest trends, and aware of the specific changes/updates in each new browser version.
  • Competition: Is it possible that you neglect your friends in favor of a monitor because of competition with your peers? Do you worry that you’ll be passed by, if you take a month’s vacation?
  • Necessity: We’re invariably inspired by the websites we browse. Intrigued by Apple’s use of CSS3 animations on their website? Well, if you want to mimic that sort of effect without JavaScript, you’ll need to dig into some CSS3 articles on our website, or Andy Clarke’s excellent Hardboiled Web Design book.
  • Enjoy Punishment: Then again, it’s also possible that you enjoy brushing your teeth with a bottle of Jack, and grinding your teeth on the barely-readable HTML5 spec. Whether we admit it or not, I’d wager that we all fall into this camp. There’s a unique sense of pride that comes from learning frameworks and techniques that .1% of the population are capable of understanding.
[...] There is a world of beauty and intellectual challenge that is denied to 99.9 percent of those who are not high-level mathematicians.
– Andrew Wiles

If you’re somewhat like me, I’d imagine that you’ll identify with each of the possibilities above — at least in some small form.

What’s your Point?

Okay, okay; so is there a point to all this rambling? Maybe so; maybe not — editor’s prerogative!

Mostly, my goal today is to selfishly find solace in the fact that, like myself, others, too, stay awake at night, struggling with this frustrating, age-inducing and rapidly progressing industry.

Forget your years of experience: if you take even a year or two’s break from this industry, you’ll find yourself right back at the beginning, once again holding the title of “noob.” But seriously, do any of us ever truly get away from that word entirely? I’ve been using WordPress for years…but I still refer to the WP codex on a daily basis.

So the next time your heart-rate increases, as you, once again, attempt to wrap your mind around some new technique, or way of coding (think web forms vs. MVC), always remember: we’re all in this together; we all feel behind the pack. But, then again, we stay the course because we love this damn industry.

Conclusion

As this article concludes, I have only three questions for you, John Q reader:

  • How do you deal with the constant progression of our industry, and the understanding that, if you take a year off, you’ll feel obsolete?
  • Knowing what it took to get where you are today, would you be willing to start all over, if the clock was rolled back?
  • Why do you read Nettuts+ every day?

 
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I'm the editor of Nettuts+, and love making the process of building for the web as easy as possible. I'm incredibly passionate about modern software development, and am the author of Laravel Testing Decoded! If you want be friends, say hi on Twitter.  

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  • http://malxico.wordpress.com/ Gerard Jota

    Well I’m 46 and when I was studying, we were led into a room that looked like something out of Star Wars (this would be around ’78-’79) and there was a huge automated machine that shot laser beams onto a piece of special metal and were told this would be the future of typograpy. A couple of years later folk were laying out small newsletters on Macs.
    I’ve never stopped studying since then. But the best thing I ever learned was… to design, it doesnt matter how or with what materials… same applies for whatever, I reckon
    Good luck and enjoy

  • NikolaMalich

    Great article Jeff, this certainly hits home for me as well.

    It’s only recently that I’ve begun to set more realistic and attainable goals. For the past few years I’ve spent countless hours keeping up to date, reading articles and bookmarking “stuff” for later. Now, I take a more honest and discerning look at things. I ask myself “Is this something that I really need to read / learn right now?”. Most of the time, the answer is no. This has helped me to cut out a ton of clutter and saved me a lot of time. As such, I’ve been able to really streamline my workflow while still keeping up to date, just not on a microscopic level.

    The problem for me is that web development / design is not unlike Disney World, in that there’s so much to learn and so much to do! There are always amazing, emerging new technologies, libraries, design patterns etc. Now, I just remind myself that to much of even a good thing is a bad thing.

    Nikola

    • http://www.techandlife.com techandlife

      That’s great advice. I’m guilty of bookmarking/saving to Instapaper far too much stuff that I never get back to, the premise being I might just need to refer to it in the future. Change of approach needed for the New Year I think.

  • http://digitale-avantgarde.com chris

    I guess there is a shift in the things, that is comparable to physics or other science in the beginning 19th century.

    Look at people like Leibnitz or Newton or people like them. They knew everything, the entire knowledge of the world. By the end of the 19th century, if you’d studied biology, you could end up knowing everything about biology. This is no longer the case nowadays, if you’re studying biology today, you’re becoming extremly specialiced. If you meet another biologist, chances are, that you don’t understand what he/she’s doing and vice versa.

    It’s something web developers experience nowadays: Most of us have started with DOS and Disks. We are the ones that did everything. We knew everything and we werde able to make everything: Frontend, Backend, Design, Database …

    God! It was hard for me, when I realized that I’m no longer able to make Webdesign, that is up to date! Now you have to be a designer! Everything accelerates and it’s no longer possible to catch up with everything.

    Webdeveloper are purely generalists, but we are all pushed to specialice – ’cause we simply can’t be good at everything. And most of us – me included – find that a very hard thought …

  • http://lauhakari.com Lauhakari [mikko]

    *hahahhah* Was reading the “My Day” part and damn did I recognize, even the techs you listed were spot on the ones I’ve wanted to get into, but just haven’t…

    Really nice read…!

  • Greg Bair

    Jeff,

    I completely agree. I left the web dev industry in 2006 to pursue a career in sales. Let’s just say I’m not a salesman. I realized that I really love development, and now, edging on 30 (six months away), I’ve found that it’s hard as hell to get caught up.

  • Kris Reynolds

    Oddly i feel connected to the Envato network especially net tuts, whereas i dont contribute to any other form of web2.0, neither twitter or facebook. Envatos web development content is what keeps me coming back, nothing else.

    Envato makes my job of learning easier! Thanks

  • http://www.meditationsonlife.com John

    1.) I stopped worrying about it. I have used the same skill set for 10+ years, only refining, and adapting to new technologies as I have needed too. You will always feel obsolete. Ruby is not a skill, its a tool, programming is the skill. Learn any language and build stuff to refine the skill, then its just syntax.

    2.) Yes, but instead of focusing on specific tech, I would have focused on programming skills.

    3.) Jeffery is entertaining, even if he insulted the over 30 crowd. ;-P

    P.S. The great Idea is BS. Idea’s are a dime a dozen, its the execution that matters. Take Nettuts+, there are millions of blogs about coding, but Nettuts+ executed really well, and are successful for it.

    • http://threadbarecanvas.com Siriquelle

      upvote

    • http:jessewilliamson.net Jesse

      Well said, John.

    • http://www.rebatesense.com RebateSense

      Fully agreed!

    • http://wcrstudios.com Wayne

      You are correct sir!

      The programming languages are just tools… the logic behind programming it’s self is what you need to really learn. I have never truly excelled at any specific language but I have written DOS apps in BASIC and pascal, windows apps in c++ and Visual Basic, web pages with html, css2/3, javascript, jquery, php, and python, I have written scripts in perl, php, and python, Android apps in Java, iPhone apps in Objective-C… I am by no means trying to boast, I am just showing that because I truly understand programming I can learn the basic syntax for any language and try to tackle my problem.

  • http://khrrsn.com Keith

    I find this true, as I haven’t learned any of those you listed, but I would like to, just never got to it, however I took a break from coding and felt like I came back stronger, I’m also one of the younger people under 18.

  • MrShish

    Build yourself a solid foundation in computer science. The rest will automatically fall to place.
    Yes technologies come and go. But if you have the discipline to think structural, analytical and code without taking shortcuts (like many php programmers sadenly do) you will always produce code that is respectable.

    If you try to learn to much at the same time you will be mediocre in all of them. Try instead to be a grandmaster in one or two core technologies. This is becoming more and more evident at this day and age. The wast amounts of information makes us to shattered. The urge to learn new stuff all the time makes our knowledge shallow of in all of them.
    Try to learn one language at time. Take your time. Learn it in depth. And most importantly use it in real projects.

    • Ryan A

      +1 on this suggestion right here. Though I’d add ‘general software development and modelling techniques’.

      A short list of excellent books I have found very useful:

      * Refactoring by Martin Fowler
      * The Pragmatic Programmer
      * Test Driven Development by Kent Beck
      * The Passionate Programmer

      As for Comp Sci, I never studied it but do OK. I know people who have so I can get help if I need it, but so much of what we do in web is non-algorithmic (though yes, some doors are closed to me).

      What are some good Comp Sci titles? A few I have been recommended are:

      * “The Dragon Book” (writing compilers)
      * SICP
      * Knuth series “The Art of Computer Programming”.

      Anything else?

  • http://basementcoders.com/ Craig Tataryn

    Jeff, great article. I wish I had accomplished as much at 25 as you have, you still have some awesome years ahead. I know with me my innovation and willingness to really dig deep and create hit a peak in my 20s, then started waning as I started to make more money at jobs which didn’t stimulate my interests (but paid the bills and then some).

    Then I got married and had kids, and that pretty much pwns you. Now that my kids are getting older and life is returning to normal I find I’m getting the itch to innovate once more, and that means learning a bunch of new things.

    The one thing I’ve gained with age that I didn’t have when I was younger is confidence. I can now see goals as attainable, and actually know how to achieve them. So for me, I think my best is yet to come and I’m 35.

    Really enjoying your articles and tutorials, keep up the good work. I just bought the Photoshop to HTML book the other day, looking forward to going through it.

  • Evan

    After taking just a week off I feel out of shape so to speak with my web development technologies. I tackle the giant mountain of new things to learn by picking what interests me that week or even that day. Then again I do web development for fun, crazy I know.

    Knowing how fast things move in the industry I’m amazed some times that I even got into it. I think what drives me is that anyone on the web can succeed. If I had of know how fast things move I doubt I would have ventured into this territory.

    I read Nettuts every day cause I love to see how the technologies are being used.

  • http://david-tang.net David

    2. I would definitely start over. If I could, I would have liked to have started learning web development much earlier instead of towards the end of my undergraduate degree. Web Development is a field of work I can actually enjoy.

    • gC

      Very strange. I am a David who didn’t start learning about web development towards the end of his undergraduate degree and found it very enjoyable.

      Anyways,

      Great article Jeff, I have been thinking this way for awhile myself too. I always feel behind no matter how much I try, but I do think that’s what drives us. I try to study one technology in depth and have fun messing around with some others. I emphasize try. I’m only 22 so I feel as if I have a lot of learning ahead so the goal is to stay motivated. Currently, I can thank Envato for a huge source of this motivation.

  • http://www.aaronrussell.co.uk Aaron Russell

    This is a great article (there should be more like it on Nettuts).

    I always think that the skill of being a web developer is not in having some encyclopaedic knowledge of every tech out there (if you aspire to that you’ll fail), it’s in simply being able to work shit out quickly, and in having the confidence that you’ll be able to do so when you need to.

    There’s absolutely no way you’ll be able to learn every emerging tool out there, but luckily there’s no need to. You only need to learn the tools that will benefit your clients (and your business). Learning nodejs just for the heck of it by staying up all hours of the night with the laptop in bed seems like the beginning of the end of a relationship to me ;)

  • Luke

    I am one of the people who took time out of the industry only to come back to a massively changed landscape. I went to work in a place without the internet, got married and had two children. Now that I have come back to civilisation people aren’t using ASP and Access databases. PHP/MySQL is the norm, I had taken to CSS and table-less designing early and had experience in that but I had to take the jump to learn PHP. I have spent the better part of the last 18 months teaching myself PHP and OOP, though a thorough understanding of design patterns is lacking to say the least.

    The hardest thing I had to deal with was the new design techniques in use. Things that I used to do and thought were a little cutting edge were now obsolete by a long way. Web 2.0 changed the way people expected sites to look and to this day I still struggle with creating sites that fit in to the new design landscape. I was never an excellent designer, but now I feel like I am at kindergarten. There are more people in the web industry as a whole and there are more specialisations in the industry which is a great help to people who want to get in or back in, but it also makes you feel like you are even further out of your depth.

    I am choosing to work solely with codeigniter and jquery at the moment, once I understand them completely I will possibly move on to learn other things but for now getting a full understanding of how they both work is my priority. Trying to take in too much at once will only lead to stress and confusion.

  • http://www.iamiivo.com Iivari Leinonen

    1. How do you deal with the constant progression of our industry, and the understanding that, if you take a year off, you’ll feel obsolete?

    Even one year can make a big difference. I started learning basic HTML and CSS first time almost ten years ago but at somepoint, I just focused too much on everything else. It still bugs me that I lost like 5-6 years in the middle, without doing anything related to design or development. But now, that is actually the passion that drives me forward. Knowing that falling back is so easy, you don’t wanna make that mistake. Instead you wanna be one step ahead all the time.

    With that of course comes the issue of managing your time. I’ve kinda formed this pattern, where I divide my daily routine in three sections:
    - Go the office and work (unless it’s a day when I’m working from home).
    - Come home and spend time with my wife (and friends).
    - Learn something new before you go to sleep.*

    * This actually keeps me awake way way too much every night considering the fact that you should sleep ones in a while. And yeah, while I’m writing I’m experiencing “laptop in bed” syndrome. :D

    I tend to spend something like 3-5 hours before going to sleep for just learning. But it comes with a benefit. People always say, don’t be angry when you go to sleep. You’ll be thinking about it too much and it keeps you awake. On the other hand, if you spend time learning something before you go to sleep, it’s likely to be the last thing you still think about when you fall a sleep and it stays in your mind. Or at least this works for me.

    2. Knowing what it took to get where you are today, would you be willing to start all over, if the clock was rolled back?

    Yes, ’cause I’d do two things differently. One, I’d focus only on this stuff and nothing else. And two, I’d try to learn more math while I would still be in High School. ‘Cause it actually helps a lot, if you can develope your logical thinking while your still very young.

    3. Why do you read Nettuts+ every day?

    Let me put it this way; without Nettuts I wouldn’t be in the situation where I’m at right now. I started following the site like few years ago and at that time, I’ve learned all that I now know about PHP, Javascript, jQuery, HTML5, CSS3 from here. Well maybe not all, but the basics (and more) that helped me to digg in deeper.

    And I’d also like to say a personal thanks not only to the site, but especially to you Jeffrey. After listening hours and hours of your screencasts and learning via them, I eventually got inspired about the idea of teaching this stuff to other people. I ended up doing few jobs as a lecturer at first and finally yesterday I was in a meeting where an executive manager of a local collage offered me a fulltime position as a teacher starting from next January.

  • Alexander Hultner

    Woah do I feel out of place when reading this article and these comments. I am 18 years old and I’ve only had real computer and internet access for the past 3 years since my parents weren’t to fond of the whole computer trend. The first 1.5-2 years of that time I spent learning and developing for C then C++ and Java. I’ve only been into the web (php, js, css and html) for the past one and a half year or so I’m way to new to the web and programming over all for my knowledge to have become obsolete yet, I still learn new stuff every day and I love working with everything that has with the web to do. I do love getting payed to work with jQuery, php, html, css, etc, not only do I get to work with something I love I also make much more money the most of my friends who work with jobs such as McDonald’s, stacking boxes at a warehouse or stuff like that. It’s kinda like getting payed to do stuff I’d probably do anyway and it’s a great way to meet other developers and learn what they have to say and it’s great extra money for a student like me. But I have to say I love learning new stuff and that’s probably why I love programming and such, there’s always more to learn.

    So would I do it all over again? Guess that can hardly apply for me but hell yeah and my answer will probably still be the same 10 and 20 years from now.

    Why do I read nettuts. To learn new stuff and staying up to date with the latest, okay I have to admit that I probably follow at least 20ish blogs about programming and web-developing and even more if I should count all tech-related but I have to say that nettuts is probably my favorite. Only thing I do not like with nettuts is that if I visit it with my school laptop (1280×800 14″) I get horizontal scrolling with the window maximized (1217px viewport width) and windows 7 taskbar on the side, it’s only a few pixels I just find the horizontal sidebar annoying, it’s just when the sidebar grows, if it would grow a few pixels later the problem wouldn’t be there. I know that when I first noticed it I tried to send a “bug-report” but I remember that I could find any info on the site on how to do so or find a support address for that matter. Sorry for going slightly off-topic.

    • http://www.jakswebdesign.com Adam

      That’s because your browser is zoomed in. If you put it on normal zoom there’s no horizontal scrollbar above screen size of 1024.

      • http://blog.derek.la/ Derek

        Thats not the case, Im on W7 64-bit using Chrome 9 with a resolution of 1920×1080, and I have the horizontal scrollbar as well.

        Heres a screenshot: http://imgur.com/RkAjY.png

  • Hal

    I completely agree with you. But I have a slightly different take on the same frustration.

    I was recently turned down for a web development position because I didn’t have 10 years of experience in web development.

    Instead of looking at what i’m capable of with YUI, PHP Frameworks, etc. They went with my lack of years in the industry. It’s sad really because the person with 10 years of experience might have a deeper understand of javascript as a language, but not know the plethora of frameworks and resources that could make web development easier and faster.

    I often ask myself the “why do we learn” question; as an engineering major, why am I learning web development? your passion answer hit home for me.

  • http://www.splashpath.com Phyo Wai Win

    A great article, Jeffrey! Posts like these make me think you are writing posts not just for your job, and that you really have thought well about it and it is really an interesting subject for all of us. Well done!

    My thoughts on your questions:

    1. I think it would be really boring to do to use the same languages/scripts etc for a long time without the challenging factor of this nature of the industry. I just love it rather than feeling depressed about it. But I know we all really feel the pain sometimes. :)

    2. Yes I would. Just only because I know that languages like Ruby and frameworks like Rails make your life easier. I would probably think twice to use web forms.

    3. I read Nettuts+ every day to see what is new in the industry and what I need to learn about it. Of course, occasional tutorials and tips always help too. Besides, I love your work on this site, Jeffrey! You da man!

  • http://www.connormontgomery.com Connor

    How do you deal with the constant progression of our industry, and the understanding that, if you take a year off, you’ll feel obsolete?

    Honestly, as much as I sometimes hate it – I absolutely love the constant progression. I am a student, so unfortunately the web dev/design aspirations I have cannot be first priority, however, I typically set aside a half a day a week to just read up on stuff (using Paul Irishs Front End Google Reader list he put out on his blog). I typically try and push the limits with the few clients I work with per semester – it seems like every site I take on I try and see where some new technology would be fitting, and use it in there. Its very competitive – just look at the amount of amazing designers on Dribbble that a lot of people have never heard of? Its staggering, actually. And, for development – it does seem like people between the ages of 20 and 30 these days are really making a storm – Im only 20, but feel like I could spend my life learning these things. It keeps me going everyday.

    Knowing what it took to get where you are today, would you be willing to start all over, if the clock was rolled back?

    Not at all. I think especially with computer-related fields – you can read all about it, but until you actually do it and sit down to create something, it wont stick with you.

    Why do you read Nettuts+ every day?

    I get to see what some of the best and brightest people in the field have to say about popular topics. Frankly, if it werent for Nettuts+, I wouldnt be half as good as I am at what I do. The quality of the articles is amazing, and I believe thats a reflection of the web community in general. Jeffrey and the team have done a great job, so thank you all.

  • http://easyjquery.gr Dionisis

    Well, my friend Jeffery and i use the word “friend” because i feel that way because i see you almost every day… I really liked that article and I’m pretty sure that all falks here share the same thoughts as this reading.

    I ‘m 25 too and i feel that i don’t a know a thing about web. I’m getting anxious every day because of one damn though: I must learn as much i can and fast… How can i compete others and things like that. Pretty fraustrated…

    I guess the only things we can do is to keep reading and having fun the same time. I don’t what else to say.

    Nuttuts is doing great job dealing with the most recent technologies and i have really learn a lot here. Thanks a lot.

    Keep up with the good work my friend….see you in the next screencast!

  • Derrick

    At 31 I am an old timer, but yet I only got into web design a year and a half ago. I have a wife and three kids and no background in computer science. I find time by remembering that this is my hobby. It is my getaway, some Dads do woodworking or deer hunting (yes I am from Arkansas). Me, I build websites and practice the cool stuff. I am not competing with others but I will learn from them. It’s like playing a musical instrument, some people do it to be the best, some do it for money or women, but the truly gifted awesome ones will sit in an empty room with no one listening simply because they love the music. I just love the craft……

  • http://brianegan.com Brian Egan

    “Ever notice how your favorite music artists rarely achieve the same level of “magic” in a new album a decade after they entered the music industry? Why is that?”

    Great article, but I actually think this line is a misconception! I would say lots and lots of really good bands don’t really hit their stride until 3-5 years in, and mature past that point. Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Tool, I think all made some of their best albums in the 10 year range.

    Malcolm Gladwell talks about “Mastery” in his book Outliers: The story of success. He recounts the amazing story of the how the Beatles actually played 8-12 hour gigs every night for years before going primetime. He equates mastery as a combination of luck and hard work (about 10,000 hours before one is considered a ‘master’).

    In my opinion, many artists don’t get worse, but it’s more a psychological matter that as an artist becomes more popular, we personally stop identifying with the crowd that follows said artist, simply because it isn’t as niche anymore. (Unfortunately, producers do often screw up good bands like Dave Matthews by producing away their heart and soul).

    But yeah, information overload is a real beezie.

    • bananaranha

      Great article, but I actually think this line is a misconception! I would say lots and lots of really good bands don’t really hit their stride until 3-5 years in, and mature past that point. Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Tool, I think all made some of their best albums in the 10 year range.

      And that’s in the “fad/youth energy” lovin’ rock world.

      In jazz, blues, ambient, soundtrack work, and generally anything more sophisticated than “4 young people with guitar/bass/drums/vocals”, artists do their better work way after their entrance to the music industry.

  • http://www.lajmar.com John Ramirez

    Surely A great article, I got mixed feelings on this article and it goes to show that really I’m still a newbie on this IT web development industry. The fact that I develop websites aside that i also develop desktop .net applications focusing on such enhancement and new tech, is really a frustrating situation, Saying oh men this is old stuff AGAIN thinking of new frameworks new technologies to implement but hey “Deadlines” :( sad but true. So yes the awake at night situation comes in handy for me reading new trends and tech stuff specially this article, saying to myself Night time is the best time for me. Nettuts for the WIN!.

  • Ned

    Great article! I agree with a majority of the comments that I skimmed through.

    I go through the same, on occasion, and I do my best to try to keep up with current trends. Keeping up with trends isnt fully necessary with the job I currently have since there are a lot of things that are limited by the state. I do it anyway just because I want to stay in the loop and simply for the fact that I enjoy tinkering with things.

    I try to keep up with as many blog posts and tweets as I can to gather helpful information. Ive come to a realization that its impossible to know everything and I dont put the stress on myself to make sure I catch it all. Im sure if it is relevant to a project or becomes trending, I would hear about it from multiple sources.

    I would surely love to take a break from time to time, but I dont think the person would become obsolete. Unless they have an attitude that they dont want to learn. Im 26 and still have a strong urge to learn and I think that has been key to what I have done.

    Hell yeah, I would do it again. Where do I sign?

    I read Nettuts because it is one of the many tools that provides useful information. Im currently not signed up for the plus side of things, I would like to be, but I just dont have the room in my budget for it. (Need to save for a Mac first)

  • http://www.danielsroka.com/whois Daniel Sroka

    “How do you deal with the constant progression of our industry?”

    SImply – I let it happen, and don’t worry about it. When I was starting out, back in the mid 90s, everything was new. And it was exciting, exhilarating to be a part of that innovation. But honestly, trying to be on the cutting edge all the time gets old, quickly. I started to realize that I didn’t care about knowing the latest/greatest technology anymore. There is too much beautiful, cool, but emotionally empty content out there. What I really cared about was what I was able to build with the tools I had. The content took on more meaning and value to me than the technology.

    Having kids does play a factor in this change. Once you have kids, you start to worry about the legacy you are leaving them. You start to wonder how you’ll answer when they ask “Daddy, what do you do for a living?”.

    So I say, let the kids be on the cutting edge, and blaze the trails. I’m thankful for them. I’ll sit back here, and try to learn what I can from them, and see how I can apply it to the things I am creating.

  • http://ahermosilla.com Andres Hermosilla

    I agree that is there is so much evolution in the web industry. It definitely can be difficult to stay “fresh” but I think now more than ever it is easier to stay up to date. Because of the wealth of information last summer I started learning and coded my first CSS site – now I’m working with HTML5, WordPress, jQuery, and PHP.

    I agree that specializing (design, front-end dev, rear end dev) will become more and more prevalent as the depth of web design increases.

  • http://evansofts.com evanxg

    Interesting Post.
    I think most of us just like to try new things .
    1) I try to focus on what I really like conception and programming. also most of the time you get bored when you develop 7+ projects with one paticular tech (eg . php or ROR) you just want to try new things.
    But I try to stay in what I like and try to bring many features or technics from other techs to my language of choice. My advise is learn and apply concepts in the pure language you are good at,build your own framework the way you like and use it. rather than jumping on the next buzzing framework b cause frameworks are just embitions of people like you.have a look: http://code.google.com/p/yalamo-php/

    2) curently I am 30% more productive in php than c++ and C#, but if I had the choice to rollback, I would I choosen to be more accurate with c++ .

    3) As a developper I sometimes own project that require some designs css,htm , I have been using nettuts to improve my webpage design skill. thouth not the most advanced designer b cause I am a developper,
    I have learnt so many things on this websiteon webpage layout

  • Scott

    I would start over and do it all over again; it was frustrating at times learning PHP and MySQL – took my an entire summer to learn the basics of MySQL which I now know so well I can type it in my dreams. But I would do it again – I love this stuff; I love building projects and expanding to new depths. My boss asks me to do something, and at first I’m skeptical, but once I dive in I can do it; just have to try.

    I read Nettuts+ everyday in hopes of learning one new thing everyday. If I can or remember a tutorial that was written for later usage, more power to me. I actually remembered the jQuery / Beiber / Twitter tutorial today and used/watched that tutorial today to help me post a twitter account to a new project website we are building.

    I look at web development as outer space. We wonder where the edges of outer space are and strive to find them, but it keeps expanding the closer you get to the edges…it is ever growing and ever expanding…

    Gotta love it!

  • http://evansofts.com evanxg

    Interesting Post.
    I think most of us just like to try new things .
    1) I try to focus on what I really like conception and programming. also most of the time you get bored when you develop 7+ projects with one paticular tech (eg . php or ROR) you just want to try new things.
    But I try to stay in what I like and try to bring many features or technics from other techs to my language of choice. My advise is learn and apply concepts in the pure language you are good at,build your own framework the way you like and use it. rather than jumping on the next buzzing framework b cause frameworks are just embitions of people like you.have a look: http://code.google.com/p/yalamo-php/

    2) curently I am 30% more productive in php than c++ and C#, but if I had the choice to rollback, I would I choosen to be more accurate with c++ .

    3) As a developper I sometimes own project that require some designs css,htm , I have been using nettuts to improve my webpage design skill. thouth not the most advanced designer b cause I am a developper,
    I have learnt so many things on front-end dev. and really thanks you for that. not only the team behind the + network but the community here is realy great.

  • http://www.rorybernstein.com Rory

    First off: learning that Jeffrey Way is 25 is astounding. Whoa. You know so much more than I do and I started leaning web stuff in 1997. I have been a freelance web developer for most of the years since then. I have managed to keep going with a basic core set of skills. Yes, I learned CSS when that became important to do. I learned a content managent system (expressionengine) when being able to do that became essential. Innate had to become my own salesperson, business manager, project manager. The scope expands but somehow I have a client base for what I’ve established as my work niche.

    I do wish I could learn more. Jquery is at the top of that list.

    Lately the frustrations of being a Freelancer make me want to scream. But the control over my work that I have as a Freelancer is what it is all about for me. I am thinking about ways to work smarter. I turn down jobs that are not right for me. I partner with people who offer different services than I do. It is challenging. It does drive me crazy that I work all the time, and for less money than when I had a full time job. You have to be like a shark: never stop swimming.

  • al

    when I was 25, I was a programmer for a large trust company here in Canada, the only computer I worked on was an IBM model 30, with 32K of memory, a few tape drives and small hard drives. I suspect it will be the same for all you guys who are 25 and at the beginning of your careers in computers. there will be many tremendous changes and it will be hard to keep up but sites like this do help.

    I would never have imagined that the laptop I use today has a hard drive in it that is massively bigger than the hard dives we were using in business even 10 years ago. I also did not realize even 5 years ago, that I would be even remotely interested in working on web sites, but I was asked to look after the web site for a curling club I belong to, that is what started it all. I have learned a lot through this site and css-tricks.com, would not be able to progress without them. so yes it is an interesting journey, leading to wherever nobody knows or can predict.

    on for the ride

    Al

  • http://www.webdesignargentina.com Lautaro

    Why do you read Nettuts+ every day?

    Because i love dynamism..

    Best Regards.

  • Michael Bryan

    I read Nettuts+ everyday simply because I am lazy. Not to say that I do it as opposed to working, but because I never seem to find the time to research new technologies until they’re dumped in my lap. HTML5 was not even a blip on my radar until I noticed it in the nettuts section of my RSS reader. The same is true for jQuery. I now use both in some form or another in almost every project. I have the motivation to learn a new technology but lack the desire to research deeply enough to find them.

  • http://www.wavepointmedia.com Steve

    Balance is essential. Full-time web developer at University by day, business owner and superhero dad by night.

    Bringing your laptop to bed might not be a good idea. In this industry you need downtime. I think that this is one of the most forgotten about things when I speak with people. So when do you not work? Dont burn yourself out or the fun web development will turn into the job you hate. Just because people are posting on twitter and facebook at midnight doesnt mean you need to be.

    There will always be the next shiny thing for us developers. In fact the things we think are shiny are rather tarnished after you get some time to finally dig into them. You cannot learn everything but you can work on your base skill-set that lasts for your entire career like effective communication, client relations, working with a team, the ideas behind version control, etc, etc.

    I say dont focus on the small potatoes like whateverJS Framework that was released last week by that other company or group. Who cares? Yeah its probably pretty sweet but we have a base like jQuery. Is it really worth spending all your free time trying to learn yet another JS framework – doubtful. There are already well established industry players so I say dont learn stuff like that unless your boss or client specifically requests it. Besides if I am looking at resumes I couldnt care less if one guy has 5 JS frameworks or just jQuery. They all do pretty much the same thing. The same thing applies to any of these so called frameworks… try to stick with one and learn the principals behind it such as design patterns. The principals you can carry on to other frameworks and languages.

    The other thing to keep in mind is learn what is in demand. Django looks really nice. I would like to learn it one day. Will I? Probably not. I know basic Python but thats it. Finding time to try to learn Python and Django is daunting and I know our corporate environment will never support it. I also have Zend Framework and ASP.NET MVC on my list of stuff to do on a rainy day along with Drupal 7 modules.

    Honestly what Ive been finding works the best are books, yeah the old man traditional style thats actual print. I can take these suckers with me while Im in the can or read them on my way to work or on lunch. Videos are nice because they are full concentration time to focus on that area – if I am reading a tut site I find there are so many other distractions.

    The funny thing is as time goes own you learn more about yourself. What youre interested in, what you want to focus on, and what you can realistically get accomplished. Dont sweat it, you will figure it out.

    • http://karsva.net/blog Kars

      Just wanted to say I like your reply. I also think it’s good to consider your downtime. Overwork can give stress and too much stress will result in disease. Also you are right about not having to try to keep up with every new thing that comes by. It’s probably more valuable to invest your learning time into things that will give you a long-term benefit.

    • http://www.kevinbruce.com Kevin Bruce

      VERY good! Balance is key. Pick your battles and use the tech that benefits you, not just because it’s “the new shiny!”

  • http://www.johnejohnson.org John Johnson

    This post really hits home. I experience the same frustrations on a daily basis. Its nice to know that Im not alone!

  • Brad

    I am 60, and a perennial novice. Laid off for 2 years and have nothing to do but make my own 3 personal websites. I do this because I love learning, but it doesn’t come to me like it did when I was 25. It is staggering to me how you can learn and retain the things you provide us with daily.

    I try to keep up, I always use HTML5 and CSS3. Jquery and I are trying but more than 3 lines of it confuses me :) I do everything in codeigniter and your tuts on that subject have been wonderful.

    The email I get every night from Nettuts is a high point of my day. Thanks for all your hard work, but one suggestion if I might. Build yourself a woodshed and spend a few minutes a day in it. You would be surprised what it does for your mind

    • Kel

      Re woodshed: love this advice. Trying to keep up is largely a fool’s game; time far too valuable and fleeting. Having kids will certainly pound that notion into your head. I find a focus on the fundamentals of excellent craftsmanship to be the most satisfying for the head (wood or bits or diaper changes that just fit perfectly snug around the upper thigh of a toddler). People should be spending their time absorbing information found in books like Code Complete, Design Patterns, OOP concepts / modeling etc. and save the specifics for when a project comes up that requires it. I’m no jQuery expert, but when I need to accomplish something, it’s not such a stretch to digest some docs. I think the key is just to be aware of what is out there so you know what tool to grab — not to try and master everything… because you will end up a master of none, a pretty darned knowledgeable tired guy, and a burnout someday.

      Seriously, wife, kids, house, mortgage, insurance, die… there are much better things out there than frameworks. For those of you in your twenties feeling smug, there are teenagers writing XBox games to worry about. Build a woodshed, build it well, spend a few minutes a day in it, and spend twice that admiring your work as you walk away from it Lumberg-style.

  • http://alvincrespo.com Alvin Crespo

    This was a really good article, and one that many of us should read whenever there is doubt in our heads of the truth of this industry. Yes its difficult, but because it is always changing, it keeps the game refreshing and helps us keep on our toes. Sort of like exercising, but for the mind.

    Recently I had an interview and one thing that really stuck out at me was the fact that we don’t need to know everything, because when we need to, we’ll learn it and implement it appropriately. That was an eye opener for me because I thought I needed to know everything, but you don’t, you need to understand the principles and trust yourself well enough to know that you can implement those principles when the time comes.

  • Lance

    Hi Jeffrey,

    What a great post!! I am a bit older, but can identify with you completely! What I will say though, is the number of people/developers I have spoken too that do not seem to want to budge from what they know and appear to have ceased to learn is amazing. If you are a learning type, don’t lose it ;) It can be very rewarding too.

    I have just implemented my first node component integrated into a live project. It’s a good feeling when you see the fruits of your nights of study.

    Thanks once again for the post.

    Lance

  • Adam Brewer

    While I’ve only been the web developing world for a relatively short time, I think the sheer vastness & rapid progress of web technologies is it’s strength – your career isn’t based on years of study, but rather your enthusiasm to read up on the latest developments, which usually ends up being your free time. Try find an accountant who spends late nights practicing bookkeeping!

    It also means that anyone an pick up this field and have a blast, a good reason why sites like these are important so as to teach them good habits.

  • http://www.twitter.com/evilmeteor Jaime

    - I read books. I’m a bookworm and I read everyday, not only at home but on the companies dime. I not only do web development so I end up reading from books on Javascript and Rails to books on Algorithms and Systems. I even read books on languages I don’t use, and technologies that I don’t work with.

    - Yeah. I started at the age of 11 with my first C book and an old Packard Bell. I’ve find it relaxing to fill my head up with information.

    - I actually don’t. I come by occasionally every couple of weeks since I generally find a nugget or two. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s a great resource for beginners and intermediate web developers, and I have found some gems out of occasionally browsing the site.

  • M.E.

    Well I guess I am an odd one here because I am 51 and female. I have no wives at all, only a husband ;) and 3 kids. Looking back I would change a few things. Instead of being an English major who later went to art school, I would have double majored in computer science and learned to program, and then art school. But who knew then? English majors didn’t take computer classes. We didn’t even have word processors. I typed all those all-nighter term papers right on the typewriter, with a lot of White Out.

    At my first job, in a PR office, I implemented a database for mailing out publicity materials, using an IBM PC, DOS, and a database package. (Ah, the good old C prompt. I don’t miss it.) I was so proud of myself. Later, at another job, I started them out on desktop publishing, using Xerox’s Ventura Publisher and Corel Draw. Pagemaker was brand new then, and I think a really cool office computer had a 20MB hard drive. I loved learning to use the software.

    Switched to freelancing when the kids started to arrive, and around 2000 realized I had better learn how to make web pages. I remember puzzling and poring over The Zen of CSS Design, until finally the light dawned.

    I love web design. Unlike print, if you have a mistake you just upload a fix — a $2000 print job isn’t ruined. On the other hand, as you write here, it is constant, constant learning. If only I knew how to program! I took a course in PHP, but it only scratched the surface. I could perhaps slowly teach myself more, but there just isn’t the time. I recently got started with WordPress, and I am eager to learn more. The way I usually learn is to get a new client, then try to implement something new for their site. Thank you nettuts, Google, CSS-Tricks, and many more sources.

    Being a freelancer means I don’t get to meet a lot of other web designers. It maybe also doesn’t help that, as I see here, I am in a different place in my life than a lot of others in the industry. I am trying to get to some meet-ups now that the kids are older, (and hoping I won’t get laughed out of the room by the all the young people). I read and read and read, and the day I can forget about IE6 and IE7 will be great.

    Thanks for your article. I wish I could have been where you are when I was 25, job-wise, but at least I am here now.

  • amir souchami

    All in all, Jeffery you are a holy saint. Thanks for helping us keeping the pace.
    I keep on reminding myself to do every thing it takes to learn new stuff as long as i find it interesting and satisfying. I try not to feel “SCARED” to be left behind tech/progression, but its hard when you read net-tuts every day :)

    “The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.”
    Pure Truth.

  • http://forgetdbigwords.com Okeowo Aderemi

    I totally related with this Post am 24 and currently i feel when is enough ENOUGH,to be quite competitive you need to be on top but to and at what cost,today if am not learning Papervision3d its Zend or Dojo or trying to figure out whatt the HTML5 Specs are all about as am getting older i feel the urge to just slow down a bit its not as before,its so bad that even when am at Parties and there’s a hot babe looking at me all i can think is “Damn can’t wait to get Home to check what went wrong with that Dojo Class i just created”.there’s hardly any spare time for me.I guess the Industry is highly progressing at a faster rate,just yesterday i just read on CoffeeScript but another JS Framework,according to my fav game quote it’s either We Evolve or Die(“Not Literally”).but what can we do its one of those things we are to do afterall its what comes with Jobs like programming and scripting we have to increase our knowledge and make ourself up to date……..but left to me i’m happy with previous Frameworks except a new one can solve a problem i need fixed easily and in a sane manner i’d be glad to update,This head ain’t big enough for All The frameworks and technologies in the World…

  • http://code-junkie.com Brannon

    Honestly, I might be unusual in the distinction that learning new things in my field is one of my favorite things about this field. Except for the rare exceptions when I’m just tired, burned out or not interested in something new at the moment, I think there are few things about my field that I like as much as learning something brand new.

    Sometimes, I like to fantasize that I’m like a component in a great machine with the unique ability (to components at least) to competitively upgrade myself. Unlike parts in a real machine, I govern how modern I am, how well I function within the machine and whether I’m rusty or not.

    I spend hours during the the day just opening tab after tab after tab with new information in it. There’s something about new things I don’t know yet that’s almost… shiny. It’s like a little gleam in my eye when I see something I don’t know how to use yet, or better yet that I’ve never seen used the way I know I want to yet.

    I do go through down periods where I’m burned out or tired of constantly learning. Sometimes I just want to hang out at home and ignore my work. Mostly though, I find that for great periods of time I’m more disinterested in doing things I’ve done more than four or five times before than doing things I’ve never done yet.

    Learning is exciting. I like surprising myself and there are few things more fun than knowing exactly how to solve a problem a client has without having to go find anything.

  • Bam

    Thanks Jeffrey, I feel like this is an outing or group seminar.

    You saying that it is difficult/ impossible to keep up with all the coding trends out there makes me feel better. Having not long got my head around PHP and javascript/jquery I have been preparing my HTML5 and CSS3 but all these new conventions and boilerplates and codeIgniter and postgreSQL and the many other things I have been told make life easier are incredibly daunting.

    It is important to constantly learn but one must remind ones self Rome.com wasn’t coded in a day.

    • http://forgetdbigwords.com Okeowo Aderemi

      Glad to hear i was under the Impression that Jeffrey knew all The frameworks and stuff.i guess its about picking whats good for you and sticking with it.

  • Peter

    I’m 24 years old and what I struggle most with right now is the feeling of time running out to come with that “great idea”. I work in this industry for 4 years now and I see a big change in my attitude, several years ago it was all about fun and learning new stuff, I wasn’t even thinking about making money, of course I wanted to work as a web developer but it was like a faraway thought. I had many, many ideas during that time – as most of as I guess – but when I think about them now they all seem just unrealistic, naive or simply stupid. Right now my priority is to create something successful from a business point of view, I would like to create something that’s “mine”, I simply want to accomplish something in life – spending next 10 years programming for others isn’t what I want to do. So, rather than learning new stuff just to learn it, I decided to “invest” my time only on things that brings me closer to my goal.

  • http://pixelcoder.co.uk Alistair

    Again Jeffrey your observation skills are commendible at the same time invariably relatable. I’m the same as you, and over the past few months have pondered similar issues. Any learned talents feeling a little less note worthy, simply because other aspects of the web cannot be implemented. Am i starting to feel old? Is this the first stages of what that entails? Worry, doubt, ability. It was only a couple of years ago I was consuming awards and little features by the month. Now it all seems to have plateuxed.

    Sometimes I wonder that the client drive and the responsibility in making bread has sapped the very passion from my soul. Reading your post eases that pain somewhat, and instills a little bit of drive in the back burner just for those times when everyone has gone to bed, my friends and family are not around and it’s that time to get on with things.

    That time I suppose with a little organisation will then become me time again. The time to take it back to the time when the feelings of passion towards the industry where that rivalled to a raging bull. By that I mean Jake Lamotta, and not Robert De Niro, although he too is a champ of his industry.

    Here’s to you, a beautiful mind on your shoulders, and definitely one of the best in the business.

    Keep up the fine work champ!

    Thank you

    Alistair

  • http://www.hookuser.ch Christophe Galli

    I am 49 years old, so I am obviously considered to be beyond my time. I first saw a computer when I was 16 and fell in love immediately. When my 12 year old son asked me: ‘did you use msn when you were a kid?’ I had some explaining to do.

    1) I do Focus and train my ability to learn. At almost 50, my brain is slowing down. But I have been learning new things about computers for 34 years, so the process of learning is well trained. And I do focus (in mycase Drupal, PHP, JQuery and some C# for other parts of my live). I also spend quite some time with people half my age to keep awake…..

    2) Oh yes! I love it. Its been a long journey form the TI59 to the Internet. I am also proud of my knowledge. I would probably skip learning Prolog, though…..

    3) Because I learn best from screencasts. And nettuts is the best in that.

    Many thanks for the great work.

    Christophe

    • http://forgetdbigwords.com Okeowo Aderemi

      @Christopher Galli

      No Matter How much a younger person knows all languages there’s one thing they can’t cheat and that’s Experience which is very essential and that only comes with growing on a technology with time.

  • http://www.profilepicture.co.uk Phil

    Well as a dad and a husband I can say that it is very hard to stay abreast with the industry.

    I always try to watch a talk on YDN or some other blog (usually something to do with node.js these past few weeks) during my lunch break at work because once I am back home I struggle to find any time.

    I think if we didn’t have the desire to stay up late in bed with our laptops to learn about new technologies and share information with others then we probably shouldn’t be in such a fast paced and exciting industry.

  • Dan

    sometimes i wish that reality was just a bit more like The Matrix …

    “Need to learn Ruby on Rails!!”
    …insert jackstick
    *zoooooooovvmmm*
    “I know kung fu!!!”

    or what ever … you get the point!

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