If you happen to be strolling past a newsagent at any time in the next month or so, why not take a moment out of your busy day to find a copy of the April edition of .net magazine. If you do happen to find yourself looking at said copy of .net, take a look at page 104, and have a read.
Challenges
If all of that sounds like too much effort, let me save you a trip – you’d find yourself staring at a large photo of me, and the article that I wrote on the challenges of being a lone developer.
I am the only Web developer here at Ghost, and while that gives me a lot of flexibility and freedom in what I do and the way that I work, it isn’t without its challenges; for example, if something goes wrong, I don’t have anyone to fall back to for support.
The blessing of the Web – that there is always something new just around the corner – is the curse that Web developers face every day. If a developer doesn’t keep up, it is possible for them to get lost in among all the new technology and features of the Web, and find that they’re not doing their job in the most efficient way.
Worse still, they could be using old techniques and technology that could leave the site vulnerable to attack from hackers.
Forever learning
Obviously this isn’t something that anyone wants? So what do I do to prevent myself from falling behind? It is quite simple really – I never stop learning.
In my downtime here at Ghost I’ve been spending my time learning about an exciting new e-commerce platform that we’re hoping to start using in the next few months, as well as joined an online classroom to improve my jQuery skills, and even spent some time brushing up on WordPress skills.
Anyway, if you are interested in the Web and learning more about how it works, and how it can work for you, you can’t go far wrong by picking up a copy of .net magazine (just make sure you start by reading page 104) – then once you realise that you want an awesome website, be sure to get in touch.
