7 Reasons why web development is running in circles

7 Reasons why web development is running in circles Christian Heilmann | http://wait-till-i.com | http://twitter.com/codepo8 <head> 2008, London Hub, 15 minutes of fame

Web development is not professional.

We are working on this.

It is easy to blame the technology...

It is also easy to blame the web.

But when it comes down to it - we are to blame.

I found over the years several things to stand in our way to be a professional entity in the market.

Turf Wars Ego Quick Win Tutorials Antique Recommendations Tickbox Standards Status Quo Fetishism Form Over Function

1 of 7: Instead of working Turf wars together on solutions, people find their technology of choice...

1 of 7: ... and use this one Turf wars to solve any problem that might ever come up - regardless of consequences.

1 of 7: Prejudices, truisms Turf wars and total failure to accept and understand other technologies prevent us from working together on the best solution.

1 of 7: This even reflects in Turf wars conferences.

1 of 7: There is no end to Turf wars! end conference - we love to be in our own echo chambers.

2 of 7: Fighting the good Ego fight on the web is the most awesome thing we can do!

2 of 7: There is no way Ego anything that is already done can be good enough.

2 of 7: It is up to us and us Ego alone to show everybody else how things are done.

2 of 7: Then we make sure Ego to give it a cool title, reap the applause and never re-visit it again.

2 of 7: Generic things are Ego never sexy.

2 of 7: Instead we need to Ego solve our problem and then add hundreds of bells and whistles.

2 of 7: When people find Ego problems with it they should fix them.

2 of 7: After all we are too Ego busy to solve the next puzzle and get to the next stage.

2 of 7: Maybe one day you Ego! will be the one who wins the internet!

3 of 7: Writing good Quick tutorials is a real art. win tutorials

3 of 7: You want to explain Quick a certain win tutorials methodology, technology or idea, but you also don’t want to overwhelm the reader.

3 of 7: The trap we fall into Quick is give people easy win tutorials solutions that are of mediocre quality.

3 of 7: Not because this is Quick how people should win tutorials build things but because this is easiest to explain.

3 of 7: Tutorials that are Quick challenging or point win tutorials out issues that might occur with a certain solution don’t get dugg.

3 of 7: If the tutorial Quick doesn’t teach me in win tutorials 5 minutes how to solve an issue the writer was bad.

3 of 7: Quick win tutorials

3 of 7: Build your own CSS Quick menu in 5 steps. win tutorials

3 of 7: Styling menus with Quick CSS. win tutorials

3 of 7: Case Study: How we Quick styled the menu of win tutorials example.com.

3 of 7: Menu systems that Quick work and CSS win tutorials! technologies that help to build them.

4 of 7: The W3C is too Antique slow. Recommenda tions

4 of 7: HTML is not rich Antique enough to build Recommenda tions systems we expect to find.

4 of 7: Overly complex Antique recommendations Recommenda tions like the DOM don’t get revised.

4 of 7: Yet people love to Antique fight to the death to Recommenda tions defend them.

4 of 7: Most of the time Antique these are people Recommenda tions! that don’t get them or never really implemented them in real world scenarios.

5 of 7: The antique Tickbox recommendations standards lead to people coming up with their own - binding - standards.

5 of 7: Which most of the Tickbox time are borderline standards ludicrous.

5 of 7: “We like YUI grids Tickbox but we cannot use standards them as the government accessibility standards disallow using CSS frameworks”

5 of 7: The scariest thing Tickbox about these kind of standards! standards is that they are normally part of a 3 to 5 year plan that cannot be changed until the next 5 year period.

6 of 7: Maintaining the Status status quo in a Quo fetishism company secures your job.

6 of 7: Making yourself Status indispensable Quo fetishism means you cannot be made redundant.

6 of 7: This applies to Status subject matter Quo fetishism expertise: “I am the CSS guy here”

6 of 7: But even more Status annoying it applies Quo fetishism to ownership of the infrastructure.

6 of 7: Everything we built Status and bought over the Quo fetishism last years works in Internet Explorer 6. We cannot and will not upgrade or change that.

6 of 7: These are the Status statements and Quo fetishism facts of work life that hold us back.

6 of 7: Yet nobody tackles Status those - we are too Quo fetishism! busy building the perfect validating rounded corner solution.

7 of 7: No, I am not ranting Form about designers over function here.

7 of 7: I want to point out Form that we don’t lean over function towards learning real life examples...

7 of 7: Instead we lust for Form the next big over function inspirational piece.

7 of 7: Where are the Form tutorials how to over function style a CMS driven site that uses an enterprise system?

7 of 7: Where are the Form tutorials and talks over function about i18n and JavaScript?

7 of 7: Where are the Form showcases of how over function example.com was built?

7 of 7: I think it is high time Form to tell people how over function to deliver their day- to-day jobs faster, better and work for the people who take over from them.

Seven problems to have in mind before we post our next piece or give our next talk.

I want to hear more from people from the trenches.

Thanks!

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7 Reasons why web development is running in circles

by Christian Heilmann on Oct 24, 2008

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