I live a strange existence at the moment. My daytimes are filled with either revision for Microsoft certification exams, or requests to add non-existent content to the company website. My evenings are filled with freelance web design work, system upgrades, and a hail of twitter posts bouncing off the windows.
I shouldn’t complainsince I started doing freelance work last year as a second string to my “real” job, I’ve not had to look for work. In one or two cases I’ve had to actually turn work downone particular project I turned down could have paid our mortgage for six months.
It’s interestingthe task has turned from an initial starting of things to one of maintaining things. Installing updates, evolving designs, revisiting content. The task of a modern web developer is not easy. You have to know varying amounts of any or all of the following list
Operating system installation, configuration and management (could be Windows, Linux or Unix on rare occasions)
Database server installation, configuration and management (could be SQL Server, Oracle, or MySQL typically)
Web server installation, configuration and management (usually Apache, but Tomcat and IIS appear now and again)
Publishing platform installation, configuration and management (WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are the usual suspects)
Markup languagesHTML, DHTML, XHTML
Development languagesPHP, Javascript, ASP.
NET, C#, SQL, Python, Perl
Graphic design
Typographical design
Photography and photographic manipulation
Content authoring and editing (copy writing)
It’s a huge stack to learn, and very difficult to know enough (or be good enough) at each part to be able to do it single handed. There are areas I know I lack, and areas I know I am better than most. The important thing to remember is that there is always somebody better than you at pretty much anything you doand to recognise when you need their help.
Concentrate on what you can do, and delegate as much as possible of what you cannot to others who can. If you have enough interest you can learn about each and every discipline requiredbut this is the world wide web, and for many of the skills in the above list the knowledge you gained last year will be almost worthless next year.
We’re all busy idiots. Never underestimate the power of busy idiots thoughthey built the internet you know.