In the early days of the graphical Web, everybody was a generalist, mainly because the technology wasn’t moving so fast that keeping track of everything required full-time attention, but also because the standards for excellence were much lower. As the web matured, the market inevitably encouraged the rise of specialists - programmers, database developers, UI architects, graphic designers, etc.
But some of us refused to give up our ‘webmaster’ titles and kept learning, kept plugging along, incrementally gaining experience in a range of different disciplines.
It seems that Web 2.0 may also signal the Return of the Generalists.
I hope too many people don’t mind that I don’t post a second installment of ‘Self-Help Buddha’ today - it is in the works, but for much of this week my mind’s been elsewhere, whether it relates to the events unfolding in Louisiana or more local concerns such as getting my health insurance set up […]
In [his response][1] to my post _[Tools and evolution][2]_, Michal writes about local vs. global optimization, how small changes often improve the entire process, and inefficiencies in the larger picture may actually be necessary. It makes a lot of sense and is essentially the same point I was trying to make, though I might not […]
My friend Michal recently wrote about [Software and change][1], exploring the idea that
>[S]oftware that doesn’t result in a behaviour change has very little value.
I agree, with the caveat that _software that __forces__ behavioral change_ also has very little value. As an example, look at [del.icio.us][2], a ’social bookmarking’ application that, despite its current audience […]
[David][1] posted a link to my lighttpd darwinports tutorial on the [rubyonrails weblog][2] on Friday and traffic has been pouring in ever since. I’m curious how many people have installed Lighttpd with Darwinports this weekend!
[1]: http://loudthinking.com/
[2]: http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/
Thanks David!
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