Working on a few things in your bedroom, doesn't make you an ...

And neither does talking about them make you an expert. I wrote this post a few weeks ago but deleted it until my blood started boiling again this morning. I read the following quote:

1. Have a personal site
2. Write
3. Speak

?

It?s how you develop professionally and claim your space

I have a lot of time for Zeldman. He?s truly done a lot for our industry but I feel this is not the way forward for our industry. And this sums up my problem with a new wave of self-entitled speakers. This was quoted for Reasons To Be Creative, but has nothing to do with being creative and everything to do with being a personality, a web celebrity.

These aren?t bad things to do. Not at all. However, your work should speak for itself before you even try to claim your place in the industry. It shouldn?t be something that?s forced.

While I?ve pushed hard for more diversity in speaking and not just the usual clique, I am seeing an increased group of what I?d call newbies and inexperienced designers having started speaking. Don?t get me wrong,?I am so bloody glad there are novice speakers talking. That in itself is an amazing thing. But no one speaks from a novice place ? potentially because being seen as a novice is weak.?It?s great to see a variety of skills, but it comes with unprofessional behaviour or snide remarks such as ?I count myself as a true designer because I do HTML.?

This is not to say that you shouldn?t be new and speak. Not at all. Please do speak. But have some humility, don?t talk as if you?re a veteran ? let people know what you do and how and why it works for you rather than suggesting there is only one way to do things, or telling others they?re not ?true?, ?proper? or anything else to validate yourself.

Another great of our industry, Chris Coyier. A man, who?s spent a lot of his free time just handing out his knowledge he?s learnt on a silver platter for everyone to take, said something the other day which I truly agreed with.

As long as I?ve been blogging, I?ve had a full-time job. So I?m in the trenches of web design, not just speaking about it from afar. I get to speak from experience, and I think people connect with me for that reason, at least on some level.

There needs to be a middle-ground. Those who speak often have less time for doing actual work, which means there is a good chance where the people teaching and speaking are behind the curve. I?ve seen this happen with some major names in my life. That the ?thought leaders? are behind those on the front lines. It?s not a rule of thumb, but it definitely happens. Most veterans in the industry can get away with it because they learn faster, and have a lot more?knowledge?to balance it out. But add someone who?s relatively new to the industry or not very well experienced and you have a situation of the blind leading the industry.

I recently read a post damning Sass as a ?fad? and that it?s wrong for every project. What later transpires is that on most projects the poster only takes a maximum of 10 hours for the CSS. Yet the developer spoke about how Sass was wrong for everything and everyone. A speaker no less!?There are many different types of projects on the web. Small, (upto 20 hours), Medium (a few months), Large (6+ months), Enterprise (5+ years) and Your Own. Personally, I?ve worked on all ? but I still don?t feel confident?committing to?a prescription for all. Every project is different and should be treated as such. The speakers are the people who help define the culture of the industry. It?s who newbies see, and who they learn how to act from.

Part of it is still due to the shock. I stopped going to design conferences after SXSW 2008, and only started back in 2012. I was tired of the speakers saying the same things I heard years earlier, and I just wanted to get on with my work. It was?therapeutic?and something I recommend for everyone. But I wanted to start getting back into them, meeting new people and enjoying myself around like-minded folks. But after my hiatus I saw speakers I had never heard of (which I loved) but who I felt hadn?t the skill nor experience to be speaking so strongly as they did (which I didn?t.)

One response I received was ?Why don?t you speak?? Quite fair ? I don?t speak because I spend a lot of my time helping thousands of people through IM one-to-one. I?ve tried StackOverflow but didn?t enjoy the medium. I?m writing an open-source book in my very little spare time. I?ve written a lot of open-source code and contributed to non-profit projects too, some very popular. I?ve been asked to speak, and am every year (at two different conferences and a meetup this year.) But speaking to people isn?t my thing ? I prefer the one-on-one interactions. I have no intentions of being famous (internet or not) ? I just want to create cool shit.

What I should have said when I?ve called out for more speakers was: I want there to be a bigger diversity of speakers, but those who?ve proved themselves. Not those who think being in this industry is about being a web celebrity. If you spend your life talking about what you ?should be? doing, rather than what you are doing, you have a lot less to give the industry.

(Thanks to Phil Sherry for the title.)

Source: http://zachinglis.com/2012/working-on-a-few-things-in-your-bedroom-doesnt-make-you-an-expert/

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