Hybrids Rule Everything Around Me (A Web Afternoon)

If there was ever an era of specialization, it is now coming to an end. No longer can any web professional get by in today's ecosystem without diversifying. A true engineer can understand design and development, the technical and the creative and thrives at the intersection of both.

You can build everything from the ground up, you just need a little push. Let's use the ecosystem to your advantage. Exchange knowledge with those around you and as an example, invest your time in open source.

You are a hybrid, you just don't know it yet.

Transcript

1. Hybrids Rule Everything Around Me A talk given with ❤ by Bryan Veloso http://simpledesktops.com/browse/desktops/2013/apr/06/wiresphere_black/
2. Specialization is dead.
3. Specialization is dead. No, not really.
4. Specialization has evolved.
5. The common term? Well, I find it boring...
6. A generalist. “yeah, I’m generally ok at things.”
7. A jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. Cool story bro. What does a jack even do?
8. Yo jack-of-all-trades, I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish but hybrid is the best title of all time.
9. Come on guys, srsly. Mega Man or horses with horns? You pick. But I’m going with hybrid. “Unicorn” is prey cool too.
11. Hi, I’m @bryanveloso.
12. I live in LA.
13. With my wonderful wife, Jen.
14. ... and 1 cat.
15. ... and 2 cats.
16. ... and 3 cats.
17. ... and 4 cats.
18. ... and 5 cats.
19. I work at .
20. .com/bryanveloso
21. So, let me tell you a story.
22. I’ve been designing since I was 13. My first website was a fan-site for Final Fantasy 7. It was pretty wicked. If you’ve heard of “Avalonstar” or the “ChaoticSoul” WordPress theme... yep, that’s me.
23. I turned that hobby into a career in 2005. Graduated college. Joined thefacebook as their 2nd designer. Still kinda sorta in college.
24. “I will never get into programming.” Said around 2006. PHP was icky and all I was using it for were WordPress themes and templating at Facebook. I wanted to be a “pure designer.”
25. So, let me really tell you a story.
26. Don’t panic, there’s a pony in it. This is the Django Pony from the Python web framework of the same name. I am its father. o_o;
27. This is the story of Hello! Ranking. This is the story of how my wife and Japanese Pop music made me a hybrid and changed my life.
29. design + development + ops = devignops? I wanted to control the entire stack. Having the power to go from idea, wireframes to the back-end and deployment is awesome.
30. September 2008 – May 2011 (Codebase 1.0)
31. October 2011 – Present (Codebase 2.0)
35. 5 years later, Hello! Ranking hasn’t shipped. Just because you don’t ship, doesn’t mean you don’t learn. I’ve learned more about programming (and design) with this project than any other. And I continue to learn.
36. What did I learn? Wait for it... Wait for itttt...
39. Learn by scratching your own itches. No, you’re not trying to create the next Facebook. What you are trying to do is keep the motivation and excitement up.
40. Asking the right questions is an art. The more specific the question, the more specific the answer. You get out what you put in.
41. Everything is a challenge. You know what you say to those challenges? Come at me, bro.
42. Turn discouragement into motivation. Can’t even name the number of times I was this close to giving up. Cheer up emo kid, you can do it.
43. Failures make success even sweeter. Now I know why people throw launch parties. When I launch H!R, I know I’m throwing one.
44. At we’re all hybrids.
45. My co-worker Cameron went from motion graphics to building a Ruby gem for our icon typeface in his 2 years with GitHub.
46. It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.
47. The first step is the hardest. When you get home, pick up a book or read an article about something you’ve always been meaning to learn.
48. Build. Force yourself to build. You’re a designer? Remember when CSS was foreign to you? But you really wanted to make that fan site, so you learned and you built.
49. You’re a developer? Remember when <insert language here> used to be foreign to you? But you really disliked b2 to blog. So you learned and you built. Build. Force yourself to build.
50. You’re neither? You have no excuse. You have the ideas, learn to build them. Learn to speak the language and help yourself in the long run. Build. Force yourself to build.
51. Once you get your footing, a new hotness can possibly become more attractive than where you came from. Be mindful of your roots.
52. We’re striving to be hybrids, not a “designer now” and a “developer later.” It’s not easy. I’ve personally be struggling with this for years. Be mindful of your roots.
53. Hybrids thrive off of exchanging knowledge. Trade some of your design chops for your friend’s programming know- how. Even better, build things together. Knowledge exchange through pairing.
54. As you learn, you will be able to better communicate with peers and understand their lingo. Be a babelfish.
55. The important note is to gain an understanding. A designer asking “yo, I need these variables available in the template” is certainly more than most devs hear normally. Be a babelfish.
56. If you ever find yourself in a place where the new is just too hard to take, just remember a 30-something Asian kid still hasn’t released his social web application yet. Never give up.
57. It’s time to build. Let’s conquer the world together. Become a hybrid today.
58. Hybrids Rule Everything Around Me A talk given with ❤ by Bryan Veloso http://simpledesktops.com/browse/desktops/2013/apr/06/wiresphere_black/