Humility
The web development community in the Kansas City area, like Kansas City itself, tends to be a bit insular and scattered, at least in my experience. And quite frankly, many of the developers in this area are sadly lagging behind the times when it comes to building modern, standards-compliant, forward-thinking sites. Sure, there’s folks like the brilliant Jeff Croft and his crew at the Lawrence Journal-World, but they seem to be the exception that proves the rule.
Which means for quite a few years now I’ve been able to tell myself that a standards-aware savvy developer like myself is among the best the city has to offer.
But lately I’ve been making more of an effort to see what other savvy developers in the area are working on, and it’s led to an unfortunate revelation: While I’ve been busy patting myself on the back for my Mad Skillz, they’ve been busy putting their mad skills to work. I look pretty bad in comparison, especially based on my recent work.
Which is a hard pill to swallow, but I’ve got to swallow it, along with a substantial helping of pride.
So for me, it’s back to the woodshed. Time to sharpen the skills, hone the work, and make something truly good.
A lesson learned.