Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.The Wizard of Oz

Quick confession

I've been developing, coding, building websites almost TWO DECADES and I am just beginning to feel comfortable owning the title Developer.

I'm more comfortable with terms like

• tinkerer
• hobbyist
• web technician
• troubleshooter
• buddy who helped me out

Why?

I've admittedly pursued web development part time. It can be tough to break into this field and get an honest grasp on this stuff. Recently Beth Soderberg presented a remarkable slide deck I Learned to Code Through WordPress and So Can You that lays out her own surprisingly similar journey. Web professionals operate in silos, collaborating or consulting with others, but realizing or communicating our own espertise is difficult. So I'm actually pulling back thr curtain so I no longer feel like an impostor (read David Walsh's 2015 post I'm an Impostor), but a demonstrated professional.

What now?

My wife and I recently returned to the D.C. area and I feel a rennaisance of ambition to seriously hone my skills and practically demonstrate working examples of my competencies through exercises and contributions to community projects. I'll shoot for practical project examples I'm tackling in the real world and keep them running in my repository.

My manfesto

This field is not only for the twenty-somethings. I'm a DEVELOPER darn it! And I'm not afraid to let the world know!

Thanks for stopping by.