I find myself approaching disc golf the same way my students approach coding: If I don’t get it right the first time, I’ll keep guessing at the right answer until I get it right or give up.  The best don’t guess.

In disc golf, the best players know exactly what each movement will produce.  A different grip, a different release, a different throwing motion each produce a different result.  If my throw goes off to the right I don’t think about which adjustment would be best, I just try a few.  My laziness in not stopping and figuring out exactly what adjustments to make end up handicapping my abilities and a disc golf player.

In the same way, if you are developing a website and run into a problem you can either guess at the answer, or look up the answer.  The best will look the answer up.  Why?  Simply because guessing is lazy.  You end up losing development time as you try and fail again and again.

If you’re a web developer or student that sits and guesses rather than looking for help, stop.  The best know when to stop guessing, stop wasting time, and get to the solution quickly.

In the beginning of my career my specialty was Flash.  My first jobs and freelance contracts centered around Flash development.  A few years into my career I made a conscious choice to become a “jack-of-all-trades and master of none.”  I learned XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, a bit of audio, a bit of video, photography, design and the like.

In early 2003 I went to work for a small web design firm after a brief stint as a photographer’s assistant. Our numbers fluctuated between four and six over the time I worked there.  My formal title was “web designer” but I ended up designing t-shirts, logos, company taglines, huge wall murals, end caps, and more.  I also knew computers a bit better than many of the others that worked there and did some networking and trouble-shooting as needed.

In late 2006 I took a job at a major luxury clothing retailer as a web designer/developer but soon moved into “Special Projects”.  Special projects included everything from Flash landing pages to putting together a blog and editing video (and audio).  My boss and I were specifically recognized for our efforts in these Special Projects. Because we were able to execute the projects in-house we ended up saving quite a lot of money for the company as well.

Most recently I’ve taken a teaching job at the Art Institute of Dallas.  Again, my knowledge of many subjects has served me well as I am able to teach a variety of classes comfortably.

All of this to say, breadth of knowledge has worked out well for me.  As a designer or developer in the web industry you must at some point make a decision as to the direction you’d like your career to take.  For me the decision came early and I’ve stuck by that decision.  I have friends though who have taken the depth route, becoming experts in certain fields.  Either direction you take – breadth or depth – will take work.  Neither direction is easy, but each gives you unique options.

If you chose breadth you’ll end up working in a variety of roles.  You’ll be a valuable asset to your team because you can fill in virtually any gap.  If you choose breadth you’ll have to read quite a lot and have a high tolerance for change and the unknown.  You’ll have to be good at research and understanding technical problems.  You’ll have to learn quickly and know where to go for knowledge, on your own.

If you choose depth you must have a high tolerance for repetition.  Once again, you must be good at learning.  You’ll have to be very good at working with people as you’ll most likely work in a team filling one or two specific roles.  The real risk/reward with depth has to do with the area of your specialty.  You must choose to go into a niche that has demand, and will have demand for a number of years.  That choice is crucial to your vitality and not one to make lightly, though it will probably have something to do with natural talent.

Ultimately your choice between breadth and depth will depend on your personality and the way you’re wired.  But knowing how you’re wired and consciously choosing to follow that direction will get you ahead.  Both paths have positives and negatives, but both will be much harder if you fight your natural abilities.  Breadth has given me a career I wouldn’t trade, but depth will suit certain people very well.

I would begin by asking yourself and those around you what you do well – a few things or many?  Do you start a lot of projects without finishing or do you focus on one thing until you complete it?   How long have you had the hobbies you have?  What topics interest you – few or many?  If you start a good many projects without waiting to finish them before you start the next and you have a lot of diverse interests and hobbies, you may be wired as a jack-of-all-trades.  Your honest assessment, and the honest assessment of others, will be crucial in your choosing the direction of your career.

I’m starting a new “thread” here on the Dept of blog entitled “The Education of a Web Design/Developer”.  All the posts for this particular topic will be housed in the the “Education” category listed to the right.  Some small part of me wanted to entitle this “Letters to my Students”, but I’m not that ambitious to think that any of my suggestions would be comperable to those of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

The idea is simple: my job is to train young people to become functional web designers and developers.  Each week I see their flaws and hangups.  My aim is to highlight specific insights that might be useful to my students – things that I would have or did find helpful in my own development.

Topics may include graphic and web design principles, business concepts, code or language specifics techniques, on and offline resources, and general approaches or schools of thought pertaining to web design and interactive media.  The idea originated with a combination of conversation with my wife and in class experience with students specifically centered around the design of logos.

So that’s the idea – my hope is that my students and peers might come way understanding more of this digital media in which we work.  We’ll soon know to what degree I’ll be able to accompish this goal.