End of summer update
It's been a while. It's a Sunday. Time to start a new month. That's reason enough to send out some news, we think.
So, what has been happening?
Derek talked with Don the Developer about the massive gap for hireable web developers
We (well, mostly just Derek lately) (since Ivy is back to focusing on photography) – so, Derek - talks to people all the time. We keep an open line for people looking for advice through ADPList, Reddit, Codementor, Mentorcruise, and all the Discords and Slacks. So, we review a lot of portfolios and hear a wide range of stories from people just starting out, people who’ve been self studying for years, people who went to boot camps/are currently in a boot camp, and people in graphic/UX design or Computer Science college.
Yes, the market is less forgiving right now. That’s true. But you know what is also true? That most of the people we meet - aren’t anywhere near hireable. That is not good. It’s not good for the person who wants a job, it’s not good for the people that want to hire them, and it’s not good for the end-user because we don’t want crappy software.
Some people don’t want to believe this. But it’s true. We meet the people, we see their designs, we see their code, and we hear them communicate and talk about it. It’s way off the mark. So, Don brought Derek on the podcast to talk about it. You’ll have to excuse the click-baity titles!
This first one really brough out Derek’s inner valley-girl for some reason, but the info is there. Too much coffee?
That was a little controversial for some people… but it racked up over 45,000 views.
So, Don wanted to continue the conversation.
We’d give you a synopsis but we can’t really remember which are which anymore.
Then we took so long to put out a newsletter… that Derek went on Don’s show AGAIN already.
This one is about the most common web designer and developer portfolios patterns. Not only are people dealing with a massive skill gap… but the supposed proof of there skills is showcasing how under prepared they are.
We wrote up a detailed list of the problems with this anti-pattern on the PE site.
Getting a good job is hard. But it’s basically impossible if you are totally unqualified. And so, it’s not fun to say - but people need to stop spending years spamming job applications and use those years for professional development.
There are hundreds of thousands of new CS grads every year - and everyone can learn to code for free. This isn’t a numbers game you want to gable on. If you want to be paid as a web developer or designer, you need to be “good enough.” If you don’t know where that threhold is, you’re not there. Luckily - it just takes some time and grit and passion. The problem might just be… that most people don’t have all three, two or even one of those things (yet).
Changes in the industry - AI stol-er jerbs
There are plenty of things to consider - and maybe even be concerned about.
This image was created with the prompt: “I need a landscape image of an evil AI inspired technical bandit taking over the sky line and picking little people up from a small town.” It was build in about 4 seconds. And the data it used was from hundreds of millions to billions of images essentially stolen from artists and photographers. Those implications (ethical and techincal) are for another time…
ChatGPT can do a lot of things that we used to employ an intern for. That just means that the position you play changes a bit. If we can have the computer complete rote task for us (like we always have) - that frees us up to think about more complex things. We don’t need to do everything by hand.
Ivy has been using AI to help describe images for her accessibility-first photography website. She has to be the driver (and know what to do) (and how to ensure it’s universally helpfu)… but ChatGPT has been able to help identify flowers by name in the photos and all sorts of cool things. Derek is able to feed our workshop examples into ChatGPT and ask about edge cases and alternate exercises and vocabulary to improve coverage. When no one is around, you can use it as a soundboard as you think though a plan. It can quickly find information from dense manuals. It’s a tool.
But at the end of the day, what matters is human. At least that’s what we think. But we’re not sure if everyone wants to think about more complex things. So, it depends how you look at it. Computers help us complete huge numbers of repetitive tasks. That’s what they’ve always done. With that out of the way, now we can focus on Design and the people. So, embrace it.
There are a million “coders” out there. There are tons of business men throwing together low-code systems. There are people trying their best to build every manner of killer robot. We need designers - more than ever.
Everything is designed—either for better or worse. If you don’t take a hand in it, someone else will make the decisions, and we will all live with the outcomes.
So, if you’re scared of AI - then well, maybe you should be. But we suggest you rise to the occasion. Take a hand in designing the world - or someone else will make those decisions for you. Who’s going to make the best use of AI? Someone with no experience? Or a seasoned designer?
Speaking of seasoned designers…
Our own Jeremy Fishman was offered the fellowship at CenterCentre
Derek and Jeremy have been working through DFTW for something like 7 months? Shane (another of our community) had previously taken that role at CenterCentre and must have mentioned it.
For those who don’t know…
CenterCentre is a design and UX education initiative founded by Jared Spool. It’s known for offering immersive, real-world-focused education in user experience (UX) and design. The program emphasizes practical, hands-on learning to equip students with the skills needed for successful UX careers. By blending theory with actual design challenges, CenterCentre aims to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and industry expectations, preparing graduates to enter the workforce as competent UX professionals. Its curriculum is user-centered, reflecting Jared Spool’s approach to design and usability.
Jared Spool personally called Derek to talk about Jeremy and was impressed with what we’re doing at PE. Jared has been a bit of hero for Derek since he started The Unicorn Institute. Here’s The Big Web Show episode where Jeffrey Zeldman interviews Jared way back in 2015.
Of course, Jeremy was offered the fellowship. Thanks to Shayne and Jeremy. It sounds like we have a pretty open invitation going forward. They start a new one every three months. So, if you’re one of those people who are kicking ass, you’ll be a shoo-in.
Jeremy has really put a lot of heart (and time) into his personal development and it’s been a pleasure and an honor to be a part of that.
Derek is gearing up to start interviewing a bunch of designers and so, Jeremy got together to try out the software and talk about his experience and getting the fellowship.
Derek will be giving a talk at the AICAD Symposium 2024
That’s annual gathering on teaching and learning in art and design at ArtCenter.
What an honor! We’d invite you, but it’s actually pretty expensive and we don’t get any guest passes. artcenter.edu/connect/events/aicad-symposium-2024
The talk will be about universal design and holistic ways to teach design. You know, PE stuff.
Getting ready for 2025: Reflecting on our goals
The goals of Perpetual Education — (and specifically) our Design for The Web initiative, has always been to support and cultivate cross-disciplinary designers. In a way for fun - but mostly because we think the world needs them. The world needs them badly.
We shouldn’t be driven to suicide or murder while we’re trying to pay our online healthcare bill. And that’s just a simple website.
If people want to have any say in how their world works, they’re going to have to become more than a corporate drone. As you may have noticed in recent events, there’s much less job security than we want to believe. Build your own companies.
We don’t want to live in a devolving landscape of shitty tech and bad decisions. That means opening people up to UX and HCI and how they can make change in their communities though choices and involvement. The Web is a powerful tool of communication and in many ways it can level the playing field. But if we don’t know how to use it, it can be our jail cell. Our goal is to design designers to a level that they can get out there and continue to grow based on human-centric foundations.
DFTW is an exploration of how to best do this. It’s just time. We’ve worked through it with graphic designers, product owners, computer science students, people who’ve never owned a computer, and even a Computer Science professor.
The challenges are almost always human. While we certainly talk a lot about code and computers and tools - being a designer is a choice and a mindset. It’s the choice to shift how you feel about the world.
So, what’s the next part of the experiment?
We learn so much during each iteration. We’ve added many different tools and have probably tripled the library of workshops and resources, but that’s not the bottleneck. We can come up with infinite workshops and exercises on the fly now.
As we move forward, it’s about finding the right people. It’s about quantity. It’s about getting as many people to try their hand and see if they’re ready. Quantity will bring quality.
So, we’re exploring a self-driven version of DFTW. People come to us for one-on-one coaching, professional development, networking, group connection and team projects. But they aren’t always ready to truly take advantage of that. This next phase will be about testing what happens if we let people grow into it from a solo path. And we could write a book about that… but for now, that’s the update. If you’re interested in testing it out - or know someone who is, let us know!
If you’ve found any of this interesting, please don’t hesitate to share. The internet is for sharing.
We know it’s just a number, but we’re excited for 2025. We hope to see you there.