Things are always busy over at BrightWeb Marketing, forcing us to make a quick hire or two when things started to pick up. Within the course of a year I have had the opportunity to teach two talented people as much about web design as possible as quickly as possible. One friend called my cram sessions “the shotgun approach”. The information gushed out partly because it was necessary to prepare them for projects, but mostly because I have a deep passion for the material and an true excitement when sharing it.
This opportunity made me realize more than ever that I will never finish learning. The feeling is best said by Beth Harte in her latest post: “…if I become an expert I fear that I will have stopped learning. And that is something I never want to happen.” My recent protege told me that he has learned a great deal in the past few weeks, to which I replied, “that never stops”. If it did, I would have quit this business out of boredom long ago.
How do we as designers avoid complacency?
- Inspiration
When I look at designers who I consider above my caliber, I am spured to try harder, get better, learn more. I often look at print design for inspiration because most of my work is for the web. Applying concepts from other disciplines is a great way to come up with fresh ideas to use on the web. - Self Criticism
When I start to feel like I’m on top of the game, I look back and critique my own work. I find the flaws. Not only does this help deflate your head, but it also helps you grow as a designer. You will never fix your mistakes unless you take it upon yourself to find and correct them. - Interaction
Interaction with other web design professionals was my biggest reason for starting this blog. Through interaction I discovered that a lot of you share some of my odd interests and quirks. - Environment
I am part of a small percentage of people who have a great boss. If you can find an employer who sees the importance in continued education, not only will you find it easier to keep up, but you may get to go to a conference or two. And if you work for yourself, I hope your boss is awesome too.
And I will cut mylist off at 4 things for fear of this post looking like an article from “Zen Habits.”
I could type all night about education and personal growth, but I want to leave you with a simple message: there is much to learn through teaching others. Make an effort this week to lend some help to someone who needs it. It’s one thing you can never do too much of.
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True, if your not around people who support you you’ll never get anything done.
Really nice advice, teaching IS really the way to go, because you get so much in return.
About this bit: “I could type all night about education and personal growth”
Please do, I wouldn’t mind longer posts about the subject
[...] Waltman talks about how he avoided complacency by sharing his knowledge and love of Design with [...]
The advice here is very true, sometimes I think moreso in our industry. I use the term ‘our industry’ loosely to refer to programming, web design, and other software related fields. I find that teaching can be one of the best ways to perfect ones knowledge; You learn more about your topic when faced with explaining it to someone else in their perspective and terms. That combined with constant research outside of work can do wonders for anyone seeking to improve (and everyone ought to be improving).
P.S. I added you to my blogroll at dxmio.com, though my blog is much more rambling and loosely focused than yours
(emphasis is usually programming)
[...] Waltman talks about how he avoided complacency by sharing his knowledge and love of design with [...]