Be Kind

On Monday, I wrote about The Jocks & The Geeks. In short the post discussed the divide between the popular clique and that of the lesser knowns. I described how people feel their views are not heard and thus rendered invalid. A lot of people have told me they related to the post, so have a read if you haven’t. I’m always interested to hear new angles and opinions.

The last week has exposed a lot of harsh rudeness going on in the industry. (I personally hadn’t seen any of this until yesterday.) There has been plenty of people flogging others.

Although you are probably very aware of the incidents by now, two of many that stick out to me:

The ‘Web Designer Of The Year’ winner was bashed publicly. This created many conflicted feelings for me. I agree with the sentiment. Though however valid I feel about that, this was bullying. My Jocks and Geeks analogy holds more true now, it’s definitely like high schooling.

Then another case of an event organiser publicly shamed speakers. I didn’t see the list so have no idea if I approve of any or not, but that’s not the point. The point here is there is no constructive in this criticism.

My post a few days ago was about how tired I am that people don’t band together. That people are too busy trying to be web famous to care about others – unless there’s an incentive in it for them. It’s a shame to see this is happening. Not just as a close industry, but as human beings. I was of real hope that people would come together and push this industry much further.

The web is open; open-source, open-communication and it’s meant to be open-minded too. The insulting is getting us nowhere. It just escalates and makes anyone’s opinion instantly rendered invalid.

I vote we actually speak about this. Some are feeling marginalised, some are feeling a lot of the things going on is a giant farce. We’ve changed this industry plenty of times over in the past, let’s create a better environment for all.

We need to get past the bullshit. I think the more we focus on the community than the self-serving antics (everyone’s gotta eat – doesn’t mean we have to be a dick while doing it) the more this community will reflect that. Complaining solves nothing, action does.

Let’s challenge everyone to post more of the unknowns they find. To listen to everyone’s opinion no matter what their ‘status’ is. To stop bickering like we’re 10 years old on the playground. To communicate with each other more privately rather than deliberately embarrassing and shaming people.

Most importantly, lets get the hell on with it rather than complaining about how the current situation is so despicable. We’ve reflected on it, we realise it’s an issue, now let’s change it.

(You may also want to read Paul Graham’s post on critiscism criticism from a few years ago.)

Type Cases

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday! Two type cases (One 1920s & one 1960s.) With a nice added touch, I received blocks spelling out my name with it.

I’m not sure what use I have for them but I will find some. They’re really pretty. Big thanks to Peter Lambert’s father for hooking me up with these.

The Jocks & The Geeks

My Twitter blew up as everyone piped into the conversation about web celebrities. I’ve worked for one of the top names in the Ruby industry, and now what I would consider one of the top in the design industry. Yet I’m an active advocate against the web celebrity scene.

I’ve futilely fought against what I’ve seen as the pompous circle-jerking side of the web industry since I was in my teens. I was not the cool kid in school – In fact, bullied mercilessly. I got into the web to create, to get away from that bullshit with my like-minded nerds. Then as I moved from my own little circle into the more general on the web I noticed that it was more and more like high school.

As time goes on, the rich get richer. The more well known get more well known. If I compare who I considered popular in 2005, compared to now — there are barely any differences. All of the people I would consider are active bloggers and speakers. Saying that if I look among some of their portfolios you’ll realise most of them don’t practice what they preach, or don’t really practice their craft to a high standard at all.

The truth is 80% of the web celebrities I have met are some of the most decent people I’ve ever met. I have fond memories of the personal kindness I have seen from some of the web celebrities to me.

Though I’ve had many a friend snub me when I speak out against the web celebrity scene (this will be my 4th time on this blog) because I wasn’t deemed popular enough. 20% may not be much, but I feel that it’s an acceptable way of behaving in this industry.

How does one get their thoughts known in the web industry now? You don’t need skill. You need popularity. You need to speak at conferences, or spend your time buttering up to already celebs. The truth is; some people don’t want to talk at conferences. I’m going to be presenting at my local Ruby User Group sometime, but I am not set on big conferences. That means that a lot of the work I’ve done won’t be seen. Think about the last 5 web conferences? It’s always the same people speaking. It has been since I entered this community.

My biggest referrals are always things like YCombinator, Digg, Delicious. Where the average Joe votes. I may get 5,000 here and there from web celebs but the chances are they’re too busy linking among themselves.

I’m hearing the argument that people who aren’t heard on the web aren’t trying hard enough. I call bullshit. I’ve seen some amazing designers and developers get sidelined. Yet, I see the most inane posts get popular because they’ve worked their way up the web celeb’ ladder.

Sour grapes, much? Absolutely. I can’t be any more truthful about how I feel. There is no avoiding this cartel culture if you live and breathe on the web. It’s turned off so many people I know getting into this industry. We’re such a new industry; look at the way our offices work compared to others. Why can’t we have another culture as well?

When Dribbble was introduced, I discovered a bunch of amazing designers I had never heard of before. That never got exposed due to the fact it was previously a closed community. Saying that, those people I see barely get any exposure outside of Dribbble even now. I can’t name anyone who’s gained enough exposure they’re now one of the “cool kids.”

The moral of the story is; fuck everyone else. If you care enough, stick at what you’re doing – The people who matter, will notice.

Update 1: This is in no way affiliated with my employers.

Update 2: Being aggressive and spiteful is not the solution. I really don’t condone that sort of behaviour.

Update 2: There’s been some insults flying around on the web due to people not deserving awards. Truthfully, I don’t think the person deserved it, but they deserved the insults far less. People being mean isn’t going to solve anything – it just makes the person behind the attacks look worse.

I wrote this post so we can enable discussion. THAT’s what I think will get us out of this mess.

Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken.

@media 2005. Credit goes to Cindy Li for this photo. (I was 19 – Earliest I could find)

This is a fact that took me far too long to learn. I started in this industry young. There were already people designing and programming far smarter than I and I always felt the need to project a bigger age, to show anything but myself.

In truthiness, doing the hustle is not a bad thing but there are two things that sell the most: Talent, and Personality. Without one, the other accounts for nothing. No one wants to work with a boring guy, just as much as no one wants to work with someone who will do a bad job.

I learnt that the hard way. I grew a beard as soon as I physically could (not as young as one would hope) coupled with the fact my personality always naturally appeared older. I was well on my way to projecting the persona I wanted to, which didn’t work as well.

Although this is partly just the fact that I lived on the web while growing up, I’ve learnt not to hold back. I try to show myself; faults and all. I swear (see this), I make mistakes, I say when I think something’s wrong. It’s a liberating experience It’s what I should have done all along.

If you look at the most notable designers or developers, it’s often not their skills that have got them there. In fact I’d say most of the notables are pretty average. It’s their personality. It’s the fact they’ve given large quantities of who they are to the web world and they’ve given a window into their persona.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde

LoveFilm’s Cancellation Dark Pattern (Amazon UK’s answer to Netflix)

Dark-Patterns appear all the time on websites but this is one of the worst I’ve seen in a while. I’ve heard of people having problems with this before but had no idea to expect them to be this bad. I went to cancel my account on the Lovefilm website. I recently bought a Boxee and have plenty to watch without the need to rent. The money I was spending was just getting wasted. I figured I may open my account up again in the future though if I found this to change.

Following the cancel link in My Account gave me a page asking me to phone up. Instantly I knew this was so a rather convincing telemarketer could convince me otherwise. I was right.

I told the man that I wanted to cancel and his first response was “Well, I’ll tell you what I can do. Because you are such a valuable and special customer to us I can downgrade your account to only £4.99. This way you can get a DVD still but it will save you a whole £10,” forcefully I disagreed with this option and again received a “But you will save £10. That’s a lot of money to save.” I replied simply “But if I cancel I can save £15 and that’s a much better saving.”

He tried a different approach. “You’ve still got a bit over 2 weeks left on your account. How about you give us a call closer to the date.” to which I also disregarded as an option knowing there was a chance I would be too busy or forget again.

He gave up and told me that my account was cancelled. Then the friendliness act was dropped. “I’d also recommend you pay for the postage yourself so you can make sure that it actually arrives in our depot.”

A DVD rental website is a luxury – one of the first things to go when saving money, something you start and stop all the time. But I can tell you that I won’t be using Lovefilm again because I don’t want to go through this fiasco. I will try Netflix when it comes out here very soon though.