Wow! It’s shocking that the last post I wrote here was almost a year and a half ago. I guess it’s been busy!

In that time I worked for an education company, got laid off, found work at a startup and wrote a LOT of code. Am I older? Definitely. Am I wiser? I certainly hope so. If anything I gained a lot of insight and found evidence for my suspicions.  User experience is crucial and the only people who can guarantee a good experience are the people who create the software that users touch.

I spent much of the past 10 years trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I went through phases of user experience, accessibility, project management and research.  All the while I was busy writing software.  What I ultimately discovered is I like writing software.  I like creating things.  There’s a rush that I don’t get anywhere else but there.  That doesn’t get me the answer I was necessarily looking for, but I suppose it gave me something I could hold on to.

Another important thing I discovered along the way is there are a lot of people who have a lot to learn (including me) but I discovered something I didn’t believe before now: I have something to share.  For as much as I don’t know I have been fortunate to learn a lot of lessons and I can share that with people so, maybe… hopefully, they can either grow from what I experienced or, at least, I can help buoy their spirits a little by showing that everyone makes mistakes.

Wisdom is what you get when you don’t get what you want.

I didn’t come up with that phrase, but it sure sums up what I feel to be true.  Just because things didn’t work out the way you originally planned or wanted doesn’t mean that things didn’t turn out at all. Failure is such a better teacher than success that I just can’t imagine why people fear failure so much.  I aim to fail every day. Failing is awesome. Success just means you’re done, but when you fail, that means you went from working on something routine to a fascinating new puzzle. What a great opportunity!

I could go on and on like this for pages, talking in circles and rambling about vague pasts and lessons learned, but that isn’t what I set out to do.  This post marks the beginning of a new era for me and this blog.  I won’t promise that I will never post long diatribes about strange new discoveries I may or may not have uncovered myself.  What I can say is I have a focus today like I never could have imagined when I started writing this blog years ago.

I want to make stuff awesome and make awesome stuff. I want you to do the same.  I still want to make the web a better place, but maybe, somewhere along the way, I, or we, can actually make software better.  Let’s toast to new beginnings and new projects.  Here’s to all the projects that never quite were and the ones that are yet to come. Let’s make software. Let’s make it great. Let’s make it together.