Confessions of a Web Developer IX

Discussion

1. John

   RE: At age 27…

   I feel the same way. I find that there are so many web technologies, its impossible to master them all (I tend to be the ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ type). Instead its best to pick a few and get really good at them, and rely on other sources when needed.
• Andre

  I’m right there with you. But I’m 33 and it seems I am always at the edge of the “new cool trends” I cannot get ahead – I’m leaning on cinematography – clients cannot really enter the creative flow process :P
2. Ben Nadel

   Just as @John above, I wanted to echo the sentiment of sometimes feeling lost on the journey. I joke now that I used to think HTML was just something I had “in the bag.” Now, it’s just another one of the many technologies that is evolving and needs to be re-learned to some degree. I try to just take it a day at a time and spread my learning around.
3. Manmohanjit Singh

   Sorry for being off-topic but the new design in awesome!
4. Alex

   “The MooTools team schedule an upcoming hackathon during my wedding. Are they trying to tell me something?”

   I hope they’ll make you a surprise and show up to your wedding :)

   —

   “At age 27…”

   I’m (much) younger and I feel the same hunger for knowledge. I’ll agree with John, being all-round helps you to master anything specific.

   —

   “…I’m MooTools (FTW) through and through.”

   I really needed to read these your words.

   —

   “…I’m just pissed that I always have to switch to Safari…”

   I’d rather choose Chrome, it runs nice on every system. Have you tried firebug for Chrome?
5. Thomas

   I stopped using Firefox as my main browser 3 years ago. However Firebug on Chrome doesn’t quite match Firebug on Firefox and Safari Web Inspector has a bit too much UI slapped on.

   I don’t think its possible to get ahead of yourself as there is always something new to learn or experiment with.

   And I agree working at home is the best for productivity but it can get a bit lonely at times.
6. John

   I no longer use Firefox for anything but troubleshooting with Firebug. All of my personal browsing is done in Chrome.
7. Roger Roelofs

   “At age 27…” I’m over 50 and I’m still there. Of course we won’t mention that the web didn’t exist when I started programming. Anyone remember dBase III/IV? One of the things I treasure about my career is that there’s always something interesting to learn.
8. Matthew F

   “Safari’s method of re-opening closed tabs is shit. It’s a ticking timebomb for the application and you lose the tab’s history. Why the hell even try?”

   Agreed – you don’t just lose the tab history, but if you’ve got ANY sort of web app open, it completely loses the state of it. If I accidentally close Google Reader, I want to have the same story open.
9. Thomas Aylott

   As I say to everyone who asks…
   Web development is a terrible career choice for most people. Only we crazy few who enjoy relearning all the entry level skills every year can actually do well enough to survive.

   Sometimes I wish I did concrete instead. But then I hike up my pajamas, put down the gamepad and get back to work.
10. kolin

    “At age 27 it’s difficult to know if I’m behind, ahead, or right at where I should be as a Web Developer. I’m learning so much every day that I feel like I’m a decade behind where I should be”

    If it’s any conselation, as a asp.NET/PHP server-side programmer and client side designer, at 30 I feel about 20 years behind, even though I’ve been developing for around 12 years….
11. kolin

    “I was initially concerned about switching to working from my home office but I’ve found it allows me to be more productive and more relaxed. If I need a midday nap because I don’t feel well, I can do it. If I have to get laundry done, I can do it. And since I’m allowed these privileges, I’m more than happy to go the extra mile whenever necessary.”

    oh yeah, when i worked as a freelancer for a couple of years I enjoyed this semi-freedom. No fighting with traffic, etc. but would still happily work 8 till 8. I suppose it’s different when theres miles of lush green countryside staring at you out of every window. I did occasionally find myself working 7am till midnight, simply because I could go out for a small walk when I pleased.
12. Simon

    Thanks for this article David, always nice to see others have the same frustrations ;)
    Just concerning Firefow and it’s memory usage: in fact Firefox isn’t that bad. Here’s a benchmark concerning memory usage on various browsers, it’s translated from french to english using google translate but you’ll get the idea:
    http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.presence-pc.com%2Ftests%2Fcomparatif-navigateurs-23306%2F10%2F&sl=fr&tl=en
    You’ll notice that Firefox is consuming less memory than most browsers when many tabs are open. So I guess that Firefox’s heavy memory usage is just a myth…
• Ahmad Alfy

  That benchmark is wrong … We uses FF … We see a problem …
• Simon

  Don’t really understand what you mean. You seem to be using google chrome which is apparently the lightest browser (in this benchmark). So yes, FF might use more memory than Chrome, but seems to use less memory than IE, Safari, Opera in common usage.
  But whatever, at least now everyone can choose his own browser depending on his preferences ;)
13. Ahmad Alfy

    Dropped Firefox since the first day Chrome came out …
    who need firebug when you have Webkit Developer Tools?
14. eben

    you can use firebug for ie if you use internet explorer
15. Raymond trangia

    I agree to all the thing’s you confessed go on bro..Cause I really love people who love to share their statements without fearing of the people might think.awaiting for the next confession ^_^