Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
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Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
1–10 of 48 posts
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#2I don't agree with you. I'm a developer and I can't design.
After designing many frontends I have come to this conclusion. I'm just not good at it. It takes me ages to get anything done, I have very little original ideas of how to make a page more functional, or even pretty. I can recognise a good design, but I just can't seem to produce it no matter how hard I try, or how long I try for.
Also, doing frontend design just seems to make me miserable. Much happier coding the backend where I'm good and paying a frontend person who does good work there.
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#3Great post; really resonates with me.
I've come to realise that it's a linguistic thing.
"I can't do that" vs "I can't do that yet"
Personally, I've always hated sysadmin and as a designer I can rely on Heroku for everything I'd conceivably need at the moment. I've dipped my toes into setting up VPSs in the past but I always get frustrated and give up. It's definitely not my thing. but I hate the idea of not getting the gist of how things work even more than I might not enjoy doing them.
So this weekend I learnt the basics of Linux sysadmin & setting up a box with Nginx & Passenger and all that jazz. Now, in my own ethical system, I'm happy to ignore it again for the next few months/years and going back to Heroku (which I enjoy using). Is that really weird?
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#4I don't agree with you. I'm a developer and I can't design. After designing many frontends I have come to this conclusion. I'm just not good at it. It takes me ages to get anything done, I have very little original ideas of how to make a page more functional, or even pretty. I can recognise a good design, but I just can't seem to produce it no matter how hard I try, or how long I try for. Also, doing frontend design…
Yup, same here. I can sometimes recognise good design when I see it, but I also know that my idea of good is not the same as the majority.
Frankly, I'm best off with the infrastructure/back-end side of things, and letting people who have a good eye do the design.
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#5Exactly, how dare they suggest I'm not a surgeon. I'm off to buy a scalpel and put out a few craigslist ads. In a week we'll see who's got a new job title !
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#6"A 'designer' and a 'developer' are made of the same stuff, all that separates them is the label they place upon themselves."
I'm also made of the same stuff as heart surgeons. Want to get under my knife? Didn't think so.
I'm all for expanding one's skill set. Please say 'yes' to learning new things. That doesn't mean you get to be good at what you started last week, or even last year.
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#7I don't agree with you. I'm a developer and I can't design. After designing many frontends I have come to this conclusion. I'm just not good at it. It takes me ages to get anything done, I have very little original ideas of how to make a page more functional, or even pretty. I can recognise a good design, but I just can't seem to produce it no matter how hard I try, or how long I try for. Also, doing frontend design…
> It takes me ages to get anything done
... and then people tell me "you probably haven't considered it yet, but you should spend some time working on the design of the site". Argh! I wish I were better at it though.
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#8[deleted]
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#9Great post; really resonates with me. I've come to realise that it's a linguistic thing. "I can't do that" vs "I can't do that yet" Personally, I've always hated sysadmin and as a designer I can rely on Heroku for everything I'd conceivably need at the moment. I've dipped my toes into setting up VPSs in the past but I always get frustrated and give up. It's definitely not my thing. but I hate the idea of not getting…
Not weird at all. For starters, this gives you the tools to think about what could be wrong, when stuff goes wrong. Or at least a vague idea of where to start looking.
The more of these 'entry points' you get the easier it gets for others, whose specialty you know a bit of, to communicate with you.
Bonus points if you have a 'relative difficulty' idea for most of those entry points.
Re: Oh, I’m not a… — Medium
#10We do a great disservice to others by not appreciating their craft.
I wonder if the author would feel as accomplished in his primary craft if someone who used a bit of jQuery for the first time went and declared that they were now a JavaScript developer?
After 10,000 hours of practise a master craftsmen knows he still has a lot to learn. The problem with job title inflation like this is that it bloats the already large crowd of people who do not have the humbleness of a master craftsman and claim to be more than they are.
I realise defeating negative thought is important, but the process of becoming something is possibly more important than using a claim to be something (to overcome such negative thought).