Learning Web Development Through Blogging

I have a few minutes right now and I wanted to share a few things I’ve been thinking about.  Otherwise however, this month is going to be incredibly busy for me, so I’m not sure exactly how many posts you might see from me, but there will definitely be some.  Each weekend has me busy doing something, and coupled with client work I’m finding myself unable to complete my posts to my own satisfaction.  I do, however, have time to ramble a bit about something that I thought would shed a little light on web development for those that are looking to learn web development.

A few days ago I was talking with a friend that had decided that he wanted to learn how to build a web site.

I asked him what he knew already, to which he replied “Not a damn thing” (exact words).

So I thought about it a little, and as many times as I’ve seen this in revelation occur in others where they want to learn something new, they always seem to start hard and fizzle out once they discover the rabbit hole they just jumped into. On the surface web development may look easy, but what you’ll find underneath the covers is an onion where you have to peel away the layers of technologies used to create a full-featured site.

Once you learn HTML, you could sure use some CSS knowledge.  Once you understand those, then perhaps some automation would be nice, which leads directly to programming in some language like PHP, Coldfusion or ASP.

If you’re going to take it that far, you might as well start learning a little about databases and XML and how to effectively use those technologies in a web site.  It does not end there either…

Learning these “layers” is time consuming, sometimes on the order of years depending on the particular layer of focus, but it can be done by anyone with enough motivation and determination.

Getting back to my friend, his goals were to be able to create a site from scratch, and from his point of view, it seems as easy as finding a book that will teach you what you need to know in the course of a weekend.

Anyone can pick up a book and follow the examples and end up with a nice looking site.  He could do it, and you can do it too.  It isn’t hard to create a site.  In fact, I’d say it’s much harder to make a site look good than it is to build it.

Another problem with books is that they are focused on their topic and don’t extend themselves out beyond the scope of the topic normally.  The reason I call this a problem is due to the number of developers out there that simply do this and then call themselves a web developer.  They have a narrow view of what’s involved and consider HTML and CSS good enough.

Sure, it may work that way and be that easy, but more often than not what you end up with is a site that is incredibly hard to upgrade and completely inflexible to change.

Given all this,  I gave it some thought and I began to realize something;  it’s exactly what I would tell people, however I’m wrong to do so.   From my perspective, being a web developer is akin to being a doctor.  I’m constantly learning and performing surgery on something.  I just don’t have the stress of killing people by mistake.

People don’t want to be web doctors though.  They want to be able to build a nice looking, functional site.  Perhaps two of them.  They aren’t going to be the code guru that works 18 hour days on code and developing site after site.

It’s all wrong.  For someone who isn’t already programming, learning all the various facets of web development is good, but unnecessary.  Unless someone is truly interested in plunging the depths of code, properties and methods, databases and xml, they will most likely fail or give up before a year is out if they think that is how you have to do it.

I’ve seen it happen time and time again with friends and family.

The second thing that happens is that the individual gets going, but then doesn’t continue to improve their skills and continue pushing forward learning more and more about the technologies involved.  This is incredibly self-limiting when you speak about web development.  It makes you stale.  A web developer needs to continually pushing themselves into problems and solving their way out.  This is how we grow.  We developers really are problem-solvers at the end of the day.  Code is just the tool we use to solve problems.

Enough preaching, let’s get back to my friend.  He wants to build that web site, and after giving it a little thought, I decided to give some different advice this time.

I told him “Why don’t you start a blog?”.  That’s right, you can learn web development by starting a blog.  A blog is very similar to a content management system (CMS), which is what most people want as the end result for their web site, to have the ability to store information in a certain way and be able to present that data in a nice format.

A blog can do all that and more.  If you go with WordPress then you get a collection of good looking themes at your disposal and a multitude of plugins to extend the blogs functionality.  One can easily get under the hood and tinker with a theme in a sandbox and see an existing framework from which to start.

All that HTML, CSS and whatever else can be learned by playing with a blog, and from some help from Google.  Given  little training on how to search and some guidance on what to search for should provide enough leads to find the answers one is looking for.

Of course, he can come to me and ask me anything he wants on the subject, and he will.  I’m always happy to help those with questions or problems about web development.

So, that’s my big revelation.  Use a blog if you want to teach yourself how to build a web site.  After setting up your blog, you’re starting with a web site instead of a blank screen where you have to fill in the blanks.  I’d say this is the better way to learn web development if you are just starting out and don’t have a clue about web development and all that is involved with it.

What do you think about it?

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