May 27, 2008
Web Developers are Uppity
You know, I’m deleting all this soon so it’s sort of becoming funner to think about writing here. It’s like a Buddha Board: as the ink dries, it will disappear.
But really. It’s time to b-i-t-c-h!
I’ve been doing web development (no capitals on that right now, no clients to impress) for neigh upon 8 years now. My first commercial online venture - a retail e-commerce novelty shop - launched in May 2000. Daaang. Forever ago. Straight up tables. No includes, each page needing to be updated if navigation changed. And it did many times over the 4 years of it’s existence. Before that I played around with personal pages in 1999. Been doing it ever since with this domain. Thank goodness I got tired of code errors and not understanding the complexities of FULL service web development. Cuz now I OWN. Outside of the technologies that I have chosen not to work with - Flash and proprietary coding languages - I can achieve anything that I can imagine online. Anything. It’s a delicious fact. (Although for full disclosure, I do defer to Sean for PHP.)
Throughout those 8 years I’ve been a full-time and then just part-time wage slave, and mostly a full-time independent developer. Being somebody else’s employee always made me a little nuts. When I “retired” from being The Man’s lackey at the ripe old age of 24, I thought I’d be freeeeee!
Turns out though, a lot of other people had that same idea. We techs and designers can be awfully touchy. I’m not an employee, I’m an independent contractor. I’m not a computer nerd, I’m highly skilled in technical shiz that would make most people’s brain’s explode. I’m not suggesting this option to you dear client, I’m insisting that you defer to me without question.
Working totally solo can be pretty sweet as long as the client isn’t a damn know-it-all. (That’s my job.) But that’s rarely the case. The vast majority of my clients have bullshit websites that they got tricked into letting exist. Relatives, friends, and filibustering folk with a fresh certificate from Brainbench have created these monstrosities. They don’t attract or keep visitors, sell products, clearly convey information, or generally make much sense. The clients get tired of seeing no results and hire me (or me and Sean). I inevitably need files from the original “developer” and they do their best to make things difficult for everyone. It boggles my mind. I ask for a source file, I get a timid reply from the client saying “my original designer says you don’t know what you’re doing and/or they refuse to give you files”. WHAT THE EFF, DUDES? Are we not in this together? Did the client not PAY us to IMPROVE the website? So why are we arguing over who can do the job better when your work produced zero results? STEP OFF PLZ.
I have my issues. Having my beautiful workflow interrupted by someone’s ego issues… well it prevents me from doing my job AND it pushes my own ego’s buttons. And it happens almost every time. I’m really super tired of it. I like to wrassle complex Photoshop comps into valid CSS-driven sites. Not get into a pissing match with folks who let their mouths run without the inclusion of their brains.
I’ve been saying it for months now, that I was giving up web dev. One gets to a spot where she can’t make excuses anymore, and I find myself there. This work is satisfying in some regards, but certainly not fulfilling. And dealing with people as anal as me is too frustrating. We particularly particular individuals should probably be scattered across the corners of the earth. When we encounter one another, it’s like when time travel goes screwy and future you meets past you and tears in the time-space continuum occur. Yes, it’s exactly like that.
After this site I have 2 more lined up - both brand new and untethered to some l33t n00b - and that is IT. Everything else is going to be volunteer work or helping my homies out. I find myself saying this about everything now, and meaning it. The money isn’t worth it. There’s too many other truly fulfilling things that I want to be doing, and I absolutely can not let money keep me locked in this routine anymore. It was tricky when we both made the leap to being self-employed, but we figured it out and we’re way happier than when we were corporate whores. And it’s time to migrate again, to somewhere not just closer to fulfillment, but all the way there.
Fasten your seatbelt world, you’ll be hearing statements like this from a lot of people in the next few years.
PS - Reminder to self: What did you do after the head-scratching e-mail arrived from ye olde timid client? Sean and I put on an enlightening audio program, ate a huge green salad, sprawled out on the living room floor and cat napped. Win!