You can Write, why aren't you Shakespeare?

One of the things that plagues web workers is the perception among the general population that web stuff is easy.

I won't bore you with the amount of times I've heard disparaging comments from some colleague about how they could do my job if only they had a spare 5 minutes, typically writing code is probably about 10% of building a web site and most staff given some training could probably manage that.

Putting together a web site is a lot like putting together a book, it’s only a string of words after all, hell my 7 year old nephew can write words ! and so it is with web sites, seems like everyone knows just enough html to think they know how to do it.

Just knowing the language and being able to get the screen to display "Hello World" doesn't make you a developer in the same way as knowing the alphabet and being able to write "Hello World" doesn't make you William Shakespeare.

I’m not here to crusade for the rights of undervalued web professionals, the fact that I get paid for doing what I love is good enough for me, but it does wind me up.

When I sit here and look around at my colleagues bashing out code to calculate VAT on 3 for 2 offers or working on a new 80 column report about cash-flow I don’t see them smile an awful lot, I don’t see them jumping up and punching the air in joy when they finally get the sub total to line up in column 65.

I wonder if the lack of excitement in what they do is a result of their personalities or their work, they seem like ordinary guys, we have a laugh when we go down to lunch etc. so my guess is that it’s their work that makes them act the way they do.

I guess if they loved what they do as much as I do they’d be as excited by it as I am by mine, perhaps instead of being wound up by these comments I should recognise them for what they are.