I was watching this YouTube video the other day.
Guy was a home-builder and he was talking about siding… some of the stuff he does to insulate and protect homes. And, when you look at his stuff, the finished product, it’s obvious… guy knows what he’s doing.
The homes look amazing.
The videos are really good.
He has several hundred thousand subscribers.
It all seemed amazing.
And then, you check the comments…
What a horror show. 300 response threads of people arguing over what he said at 5:18. Or, one-liners like “Idiot”. Several hundred comments and there were maybe a handful of positive ones.
Even though the like to dislike ratio was extremely positive.
Video had millions of views.
That should tell you something about people.
This is something you’ll have to face as a developer. A client, a co-worker, a customer, friends, family… as someone who creates things and puts themselves out in a vulnerable way for others to evaluate…
The majority of what you’ll hear will be negative.
It took me a long time to figure that out.
I used to get so upset and insecure about it.
When I’d create some thing, proudly show it to a client… and they’d give a quick “Oh nice.” And then rattle off a list of 10 things they’d like changed or “fixed”. It’s tough. But, you gotta learn how to handle it.
Primarily, you have to learn how to ignore most of it.
You can have all the talent in the world.
But, if you let other people’s opinions get to you…
You’ll never make it as a developer.
You’ll drive yourself nuts.
The big key to that is having your own perspective.
Developing your own opinions with time.
Having your own standards.
Being an artist with what you do.
When you do that, you naturally don’t worry what others think.
You only really care about what you think.
Because your standards are higher than theirs.
In any case, take that for what it’s worth today. Just struck me as I came across the video. I remembered all those little moments of pain I went through and how learning to ignore them made such a difference in my career (and life).
Speaking of careers…
If you’re in the learning phase of yours and HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, OOP or MySQL is on the list, let me give you a hand. My curriculum on SkillShare will teach you those things and more.
And, you can get access to it for free.
All the details on that are here: https://johnmorrisonline.com/skillshare
Later,
John
