Keep Learning or Get Out of the Way!

Recently I was presented with a situation that caused me to step back and look at my approach as a web developer. While conducting my research for a personal side project* I was accused (by a friend) of being a novice because of my exploratory nature and honesty about time constraints in the beginning stages. After taking this opinion into consideration (and after being well pissed off for about 30 seconds!) I decided to re-evaluate my current approach for a quick moment. Could it be that I’m still an amoeba? Honestly, I don’t think so. My approach continues to serve me and all of my endeavors very well. The great thing about the above mentioned situation is that it caused me to explore what makes me successful in this industry. It’s really one basic quality.

I’m a constant learner.

There is No Excuse for Not Learning HTML5!

So I’ve been wondering what all this talk about “we don’t have to learn HTML5 for another 10 years” is really all about, and upon finding out that it won’t be ‘finalized’ until 2022 (chuckle) my question was answered. FACT: HTML5 is ready; it’s just not finalized yet. When has this ever been an excuse to not learn a new markup?

Check out these two exemplary HTML5 sites to the left… Nice, huh? Remember that these sites are making use of other techniques, such as CSS3 and Jquery. HTML5 is just a new markup, not a bunch of scripting you need to learn, making is simple and easy. Heck, it even makes a ton more sense than it used to!