If you have an emergency during that time, though, just shoot us an e-mail- we’ll do our best to get you taken care of as quickly as we can.

Happy Holidays!

I’ve given it some thought, though, and I’ve decided how I feel about the whole blending interests and being pretty good at all of them vs focusing on one thing and mastering it conversation.

When it comes down to it, I think being able to do lots of things makes you more valuable. When you’re confidently strong in several areas, is it really necessary to then “master” one of them and forsake the rest? I just don’t think so. Plus, I think having all that other experience beefs up your creativity level, allowing you to come to integrated (and truly innovative) conclusions rather than only having a focused point of view to draw from.

We’re a much stronger team here because of our individual diversity. Those of us who design can also code. Those of us who write also help with project management. Those of us who work with information architecture also know the ins and outs of e-comm design. Some of us who do all of the above.

Just because we’re not masters at each of those things doesn’t mean we don’t strive for perfection. Less than great is not an option, and that’s the best part of being multi-dimensional. We learn something new every day… and teach each other along the way.

That’s not to say I didn’t take advantage of the classes I took, or do my homework, or participate in group discussions… I did. I was actually a relatively good student. But still, here I am doing work that’s directly related to my degree (communications) and I feel like everything I’ve learned has been on the job. That’s right- on the job, not in the classroom.

It makes perfect sense that I feel this way, because it’s the world we live in. We’re a self-taught generation, no professors necessary. We learn from each other’s mistakes, successes, trials and tribulations. No no no, we don’t use self-help to reach our goals, but we are self-taught, and that’s a huge difference.

I’m not the only one who feels this way.

“With the amount of awesome tutorial blogs and design blogs out there, I don’t see any reason for a degree.” – Mike Smith

“I have worked with other programmers with and without degrees. Some were good and some not; having a degree didn’t seem to make any difference as to which pot they fell into.” – Stack Overflow

I think Peter Chang sums it up quite nicely.

“…before I went to college I was self-taught and after college I consider myself to be self-teaching all the time. Learning should never end.”

I think it would benefit clients and developers alike to see factual discourse on more than just “it looks cool on my monitor.” We should be assessing work on several attributes: design, architecture, copy, interactivity, compatibility, as well as the technical aspects living under the hood.

My hope would be that we can raise the bar for our chosen industry- treating it like the liberal art that it is. Giving credit where credit is due. Pointing out where the critiqued, and we as a whole, can get better. I think the “community” feel of web design is fantastic. But mutual back-pats are not going to elevate our craft to the status that oil painting or even editorial magazine design holds in the history of art.

So who’s ready? Do you have a critical eye, a cutting whit, and impeccable taste? Are you unafraid of being adored by some and loathed by others? Are you the type of person who can love someone dearly yet still tell them that their breath stinks? Then you have a lot of work to do. Public critical analysis of web development is in its infancy, and we all need you to help it grow up.

You’ll probably go wrong a time or two. You’ll probably mutter a few choice words you hope your cube buddy didn’t hear. You’ll might even want to throw your computer right out the window. But you’ll be glad you didn’t. ‘Cause what comes next makes all the frustration worth it.

Victory.

It’s that moment when you know you’ve done it. When you sit back, look at the completed project, and smile stupidly because you’re so dang proud of yourself. You went through hell to get there- and it took twice as long as you hoped, but the end result is right. Now you know, and you can do this new thing you learned over and over.

This thing might be relatively insignificant, and it might be something your co-workers already know how to do… or it could be something cutting edge you can teach those around you.

Small victories are a big deal, so don’t brush them off, or downplay them.

In fact, as a web developer it’s somewhat daunting. You can have a thought like “what if I made a tool to keep track of when my next oil change comes due?” and a few seconds later realize that dozens of apps have beat you to the punch.

Sure, you could maybe improve the interface, make it prettier, promote it better, integrate it with Twitter, etc. But it seems like there’s nothing left in big chunks that isn’t a minute improvement on a small facet of something else.

Let’s skip to another subject for a second.

In 1997 NASA, in conjunction with the European and Italian Space Agencies, launched the Cassini-Huygens space probe. It had a far-reaching set of goals, most of which seemed more optimistic than legitimate. It’s track was outward from Earth- taking a layman’s tour of our solar system as it became accessible by coincidentally calculated orbit.

After near-space tours of Earth’s moon, Venus, and Jupiter, Cassini was en-route to one of Saturn’s moons named Enceladus. By this time it was 2005, and Cassini had already discovered three new moons of Saturn, tested General Relativity and made countless other minor discoveries leading to better understandings of our close corner of the universe.

As Cassini neared Enceladus for it’s second trip, nearby a faint glow was picked up around the moon. Just 310 miles in diameter, this moon is barely a chunk of rock in cosmic terms, but Enceladus clearly had an atmosphere. What’s more, it’s irregular halo clearly showed something more exciting. Something called cryovolcanism, which is essentially ice-spewing volcanoes. Amazing.

By analyzing the light given off by the halo around the moon, its effect on nearby Saturn’s rings, and it’s pockmarked surface, scientists were able to say with near certainty that the tiny moon had a salty sea beneath all that ice and rock.

It’s a seemingly minor finding, but in terrestrial terms, literally every time we find liquid water on the Earth there is some sort of living eco-system thriving within. Always.

So here we have a hopeful expedition, a collaboration of many minds, and many goals. Countless thousands of things could go wrong; many did. Despite the odds, the cost, and the time elapsed, real discovery happened that moved humanity forward.

I don’t believe you can calculate its worth in dollars. At least not today. But I don’t believe anyone rational would discount the worth of the eye-widening endeavor.

Sometimes we don’t know where a journey is going to lead. Often times (every time?) we need to set aside our ego, and turn our focus toward curiosity and wonder. What if? It may seem grandiose to compare an oil change web app to astrophysics and rocket science.

I suspect the analogy is more accurate than we realize. Somewhere in NASA, someone is designing a piece of a latch that goes on an instrument that goes on a satellite that fits in a rocket that hundreds of people have slaved over for years. Some day that latch needs to do its job, making sure that snap happens at the right time so the little lens can see that brilliant corona that lets us understand the tiny moon floating in the dusty ring around the huge planet that just might contain a few living microbes that are the very first discovered outside of our home planet Earth.

I think the problem with discovery is that it’s nearly purposeless in its beginning. But I don’t think you can discount it because of that. That tiny web app may never make you rich, it may never improve more than a few people’s lives, but it was your job to follow your curiosity and make it happen. There are many greater things than monetary reward in this short life, on this tiny planet. We all owe it to ourselves, and each other to put aside our egos, and do our small part to make the big picture move forward.

If you want more on science and inspiration, follow this article up with this video.

501 Bento box lunches.
My family knows I’m interested in both cooking and Japanese culture, so this one wasn’t a big surprise. I totally dig the idea that even something as mundane as packing a lunch deserves the care and attention to detail that bento requires. If you ever feel bored, remember you could be doing a better and more interesting job of even the small things.

100 Classic Graphic Design Books
I wanted this book to be amazing. It turned out to be only good. I share it just so you don’t get suckered in by the cover like I did. It’s a good book, but mostly it’s just a bunch of pictures of spreads that are too small to really do any justice. You’ve been warned.

The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams
I’m near obsessed with Apple hardware, and it’s common knowledge that Jony Ive, Apple’s lead designer is obsessed with Dieter Rams. This book is an incredible tour through Rams’ amazing design portfolio. Early sketches, great interviews, and tons of photography.

Picasso. Painter and Sculptor in Clay.
Everyone knows Picasso was an amazing painter, but it’s not as commonly known how great of a sculptor he was. His simple childlike inventiveness, and mastery of mark-making are on full display in this book. Admittedly, I’m into this sort of thing, but this is far and away my favorite gift book this year.

Jamie’s America
I go through phases with my feelings about Jamie Oliver. Currently I’m a fan, and this book didn’t disappoint. I like recipe books that have ingredients you can actually get, though, and this book fails a little here. Lots of the recipes call for specialty regional ingredients like alligator. But still, this is hands down the best typographically and photographically designed cook book I own.

Wolfgang Puck – Live, Love, Eat
This book has small photos, bad typography, and not much personality… But the recipes are amazing. Like all Wolfgang recipes, they’re a bit on the complicated side, but the extra effort is worth it. Nobody fuses Asian, American, and European cuisines with more sophistication and simplicity than Wolfgang Puck.

Cook with Jamie
Ok. So I was a little Jamie Oliver-heavy this Christmas. This book is not as beautiful as the America one, but it makes up for it in sheer usefulness. I have lots of “basics” cook books, but all of them fail compared to this one. It’s photographed well, and explained even better. I really wish this was the first cook book I ever owned- I would be a much better cook today.

Happy Holidays!