![\"\"](\"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2023-09-08/molly-and-patrick-at-tpac.jpg\")
We lost a seminal figure in the world of web design this week. And I lost a good friend and mentor. Molly Holzschlag cared deeply for the web and those of us who till its soils.
\nThis is a tough post to write, to be honest. It’s difficult to articulate just how influential Molly has been on my own work, my philosophical approach to web design, and my career.
\n
Molly was there when I gave my first talk. 2003. COMDEX. I’d been invited out by the World Organization of Webmasters to give a talk on XHTML. The talk was solid. My delivery was atrocious. Molly was quick to come up after and congratulate me. I was floored.
\nI told her how excited I was to see her and Eric Meyer give a talk on CSS later in the day. She told me Eric had had to cancel his trip last minute and asked me if I would be interested in giving the talk with her. Just like that. I don’t know that she had any idea who I was (I’d only just published my first piece in A List Apart a few months earlier). But that was how Molly rolled. She saw my passion for web standards and somehow knew I’d be able to step up.
\nThat one welcoming gesture was huge for me. And it was the start of a long collaboration and friendship. After that talk, we met up in Vegas again in 2004 and then went on a speaking tour the U.S. together in 2005, running web standards workshops where we taught people the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and accessibility. I learned so much from her during that time and bore witness, over and over, to her immense capacity for welcoming people, bringing them together, breaking bread, building her tribe… she was the very embodiment of the word hospitable.
\nAnd gregarious. Her boisterous laugh was infectious and memorable. I can still hear it echoing in my ears.
\n![\"Me](\"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2023-09-08/aaron-and-molly.jpg\")
I don’t know that I’ve ever met someone who gave as much of herself as Molly did. She always, always put others first, sometimes to her own detriment.
\nWhen I first met Molly, she was leading the Web Standards Project (WaSP). She poured her heart and soul into that organization and the cause of web standards. I lost count of how many events she spoke at, often on her own dime. She invited educators into her home to teach them how to properly teach the next generation of web designers and developers… for free.
\nShe always put her advocacy for the cause first… a double edged sword we’ve since named advocacy fatigue. It took a toll on her—mentally, physically, and spiritually—and she took the occasional break from it, but she never gave up on the fight for a more egalitarian web.
\n![\"In](\"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2023-09-08/working-on-slides.jpg\")
Another aspect of Molly’s giving nature was her insistence on opening doors for people, career-wise. I witnessed her pass along amazing opportunities that found their way into her inbox with an incredible amount of joy. Like doling out incredible gifts for a holiday.
\nOne such gift she handed me was the opportunity to do some work with Adaptive Path. Through her introduction, I got the chance to work with an amazing team on several projects… all from my living room thousands of miles from their San Francisco offices. That was the kind of sway she pulled.
\nThat work led to a part-time role (and health insurance) at Bolt|Peters, where I worked on Ethnio. That role gave me the freedom to quit my day job at an ad agency and begin building my own consulting business, which I launched a few months later and ran for over a decade.
\nAll because of the doors Molly opened.
\nIn a separate path, she invited me to join WaSP, where I worked on a lot of JavaScript-focused efforts. That led to me working with Microsoft on improvements to IE7 and IE8 and—years later—to me eventually joining Microsoft as a web standards advocate.
\nAll because of the doors Molly opened.
\nAnd I was not alone. Wherever and whenever Molly saw an opportunity to help someone on their career journey, she would help them. Book contracts. Speaking engagements. Networking. Freelance work. If Molly saw any way she could help you, she did. No ego. No expectations. Selfless.
\nHer example is what inspired me to build my mentoring program. I don’t know that I can ever do as much good as she did for people, but she made me want to try.
\n![\"In](\"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2023-09-08/molly-training.jpg\")
If you know Molly’s name, this is probably why. She was a staunch—and loud—advocate for web standards and accessibility. A veteran of the browser wars (and subsequent skirmishes), she knew the landscape and she knew how imperative it was for standards to emerge and for browsers to implement them consistently.
\nI wasn’t there for the meeting, but she told me Bill Gates tried to tell her the web was “done” ’round about the IE6 days and she yelled at him. While she wasn’t one to shy away from the occasional embellishment, she was just as unlikely to shy away from a confrontation over the viability and future of the web… so it would not surprise me at all to hear that she’d yelled at him.
\nMolly was a lioness—nurturing and maternal to the web and its denizens and a fierce protector when they were threatened. She saw the potential of the web as a great equalizer and bristled when folks would try to wall it off or exclude people—especially disempowered people—from accessing it.
\nThat passionate support for the open web never wavered, even when Molly became ill. In fact we’d been talking about whether it might make sense to re-launch WaSP this year, a decade after we’d shuttered it because we thought the work was done—it wasn’t.
\n![\"In](\"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2023-09-08/molly-presenting.jpg\")
Knowing Molly affected me. Deeply. Her kindness, thoughtfulness, generosity, and passion live on in everyone her life and work touched. Including me.
\nI don’t know what to make of a world without Molly, but I hate that we’re living in one. She truly was a force of nature and, as such, has left an indelible mark on this industry.
\nI’m so thankful to have known her. To have received her mentorship. To have called her a friend.
\nGoodnight Mols. I love you.
\nMore on front-end.social by following #MollyHolzschlag.
\nKnow of others? Please share them.
\n","social_text":"We lost a seminal figure in the world of web design this week. And I lost a good friend and mentor. RIP Molly Holzschlag.","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/remembering-molly/","tags":["influences","career","personal","industry","the web"],"image":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2023-09-08/molly-taking-pictures.jpg","date_published":"2023-09-08T18:14:31Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/apply-now-for-my-2023-mentorship-cohort/","title":"✍🏻 Apply Now for My 2023 Mentorship Cohort","summary":"The application will remain open through November 30th.","content_html":"Are you a web professional (or aspiring web professional) who is looking for career guidance and opportunities? Consider applying for my 2023 mentorship cohort.
\nBefore you apply, I highly recommend reading up on my mentorship program to see if it will be a good fit for you.
\nThe application will remain open through November 30th.
\n","social_text":"Are you a web professional (or aspiring web professional) who is looking for career guidance and opportunities? Consider applying for my 2023 mentorship cohort","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/apply-now-for-my-2023-mentorship-cohort/","tags":["career","mentoring","personal"],"image":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2022-10-03/hero.jpg","date_published":"2022-10-03T18:31:22Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/a-bittersweet-goodbye/","title":"✍🏻 A Bitter­sweet Good­bye","summary":"June 3rd was my last day on the Edge team.","content_html":"June 3rd was my last day on the Edge team. It’s been an absolute honor and privilege to work with such an amazing team all these years, moving from Internet Explorer (IE) to “Spartan” Edge and, finally, to “Anaheim” Edge.
\nMy first interactions with the IE team were back in 2006 and 2007, when I was representing the Web Standards Project (WaSP), pushing the team to deliver better JavaScript compatibility (especially the standardized event model). I continued to agitate for IE to up its standards game over the next few years and worked closely with folks on a number of projects. One that stands out was working on the X-UA-Compatible meta tag. PPK and I helped with the design of the somewhat controversial feature. I’m particularly proud that I pushed for IE to adopt an “always-on” standards mode for version targeting. I called it “edge mode” because it allowed developers to work with “bleeding edge” standards. I like to think that name inspired—in some small way—the name of the Edge browser today.
In 2015, I joined Microsoft as an evangelist for web standards, just before the team announced the move from IE to “Spartan” Edge. I chose to come to Microsoft because I saw a passion for web standards within the browser team. I also love underdogs and saw the IE team operating like a scrappy upstart (albeit backed by an industry titan). The IE team wasn’t allowed to hire remote folks—I was in Tennessee at the time—so I joined Microsoft as part of the Developer Experience, alongside Rey Bango and Christian Heilmann to form the first dedicated evangelism team the browser had in ages. We worked closely with the browser’s Ecosystem team to promote best practices in web standards, accessibility, and more.
\nAfter hopping around between a handful of different orgs, our little team was finally brought “in house” to Edge in 2018. Before that happened, however, I had already caught the PWA bug and had been working closely with Edge’s web apps team to chart the future of PWAs on Windows. Coming onto the Edge team opened up even more opportunities for me in this space and with the support from Rey (and then Kyle Pflug), I took an even more active role in the development of PWA-related standards, culminating in me becoming a spec editor for the Web App Manifest and developing features such as PWA Shortcuts (which Edge shipped first and up-streamed to Chromium) and Web Widgets (which are coming soon).
\nI’ve had an incredible amount of support from my management chain for so many ambitious and important projects over the years—The Web We Want, for one—and I am so thankful for that. I‘m most especially appreciative of the support I’ve gotten to focus on D&I work. Culture and inclusion matters so much and I truly appreciate how much my team not only believes in, but invests in making Edge (and Microsoft) a more inclusive place to work.
\nI have so much love for the Edge team and will continue to root for them from not too far away. This Monday marked my first on the Technology & Corporate Responsibility team in CELA as their Accessibility Innovation Strategist. I’ll be charting the future of accessible technologies and directing future investments in this space across Microsoft products and beyond. I know my work will continue to overlap with Edge as there are so many ways we can use the browser to break down barriers and improve people’s lives.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/a-bittersweet-goodbye/","tags":["career"],"image":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2022-06-10/hero.jpg","date_published":"2022-06-10T22:15:48Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/apply-for-a-spot-in-my-2020-2021-mentorship/","title":"✍🏻 Apply for a spot in my 2020–21 mentorship cohort","summary":"I look forward to getting to know you and taking a few of you under my wing.","content_html":"It’s hard to believe how quickly the last year has gone. It has been a tremendous honor to work with Ace, Dezzie, Marcy, Olu, and Sara for these past 12 months. And while we wrap up our mentorship calls this month, I thought it would be a good idea to open up the application for my 2020–21 cohort.
\nI was totally overwhelmed by the response when I opened up applications last year, so I’m going to try to be a bit more organized this year by having a more formal application process using a web form. This will help me reduce the amount of manual work I have to do to review all of the applications.
\nIf you’re interested, I encourage you to read the parameters of the mentorship below and then you can click over to the form and apply.
\nWhether you aspire to work on the web or you’re a veteran of the browser wars, if you think you could benefit from mentorship, I’d like to help. My ideal mentee is someone who’s passionate about the web and is—perhaps most of all—someone who I believe I can help.
\nTo that end, my skills and knowledge will probably be most helpful to people interested in any or all of the these:
\nI’m into a lot of things, but those are probably the ones I’m most confident I can help with.
\nYou don’t need to live near me or even in the same hemisphere. If you happen to be in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. or live somewhere that I’m traveling to over the next year, I’d love to meet you in person, but that’s by no means a requirement. I’m based in the Pacific time zone (Seattle, Washington), but I’ll do my best to coordinate a regular time for us to chat that won’t require you hopping on Skype at two in the morning (unless that’s your thing). Email… Skype… Hangouts… I’m happy to work however you’re comfortable.
\nI’m afraid I don’t speak any languages other than English, so that artificially restricts the pool of folks I can work with, but don’t worry if you don’t think your English is great. Honestly, it’s probably better than you give yourself credit for. It’s also 100% guaranteed to be better than my attempts at speaking pretty much any language other than English.
\nMuch of my work over the past twenty-plus years has been concentrated in the areas of accessibility and, more broadly, inclusive design. To create a web that can go anywhere and work for anyone, we need a diverse group of people making it happen. Sadly, our industry has a difficult time recruiting, developing, and (most importantly) retaining a diverse workforce. Given the egalitarian ideals that the web was founded on, that’s a travesty.
\nI want to see more diverse faces working on the web, speaking at conferences, writing articles, and getting promoted into leadership positions in design, UX, and development. I am only considering applications from folks who self-identify as part of an underrepresented group. Out of respect for your privacy, I’m not requiring that you label yourself in any particular way, but I do ask that you check your privilege and refrain from applying if you’re part of a group that is already heavily represented in our industry (such as white or asian cis het males).
\nThis mentorship will last for a full year. You’ll have the option of talking to me for an hour a month, either all at once or in two 30-minute blocks. You’ll also be invited into my mentorship Slack group, where you’ll be able to chat with me async or in real-time (depending on where you live), chat with other folks in your cohort (and my past mentees), and share your work.
\nIf you know someone who you think would be a good fit for this, please nominate them! All I ask is that you introduce us with some context. The easiest (but most public) way is to @-message us both on Twitter. If you’d rather keep it private, you can kick off a DM thread with us if your nominee is on Twitter too (my DMs are open). You could also start the conversation by dropping me a note through the contact form on this site or sending me a message on any of the various platforms I frequent (Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on).
\nThe application for my 2020–21 mentorship cohort is open through the end of February in any timezone (I’m not a stickler, but the form will close automatically on March 1st). I met a ton of amazing folks last year through this process and got to work with two outstanding human beings. I look forward to getting to know you and taking a few of you under my wing.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/apply-for-a-spot-in-my-2020-2021-mentorship/","tags":["mentoring","career"],"date_published":"2020-01-16T23:14:07Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/im-running-for-the-w3c-advisory-board/","title":"✍🏻 I’m Running for the W3C Advisory Board","summary":"When a handful of my colleagues reached out to see if I’d consider running for the W3C Advisory Board, I was… well… speechless.","content_html":"As many of you know, I’ve been involved in the push for web standards for the better part of two decades. I caught the bug early and have been advocating for their use in pretty much every article, book, talk, and workshop I’ve created. I’ve also had the great pleasure of helping run the Web Standards Project (WaSP), a group whose impact on the web cannot be understated.1 And so, when a handful of my colleagues reached out to see if I’d consider running for the W3C Advisory Board, I was… well… speechless. What an honor it is to be nominated, especially out of the blue like that!
\nYou can read my nomination statement on the W3C site, so I won’t spend a lot of time rehashing that. What I will do is make a brief case for why I think I would be a valuable member of this particular board.
\nI’m a web developer whose heart belongs to standards. I may work for Microsoft in Developer Relations, but I started building stuff for the web in 1996 and never stopped. I’ve worked on sites for every kind of business you can imagine—from small mom and pop shops to huge international conglomerates and everything in between. I’ve also held just about every role you can in web projects, from strategist right through to front and back end dev, where the rubber meets the road.
\nI think this experience, especially when coupled with my current position at Microsoft—which affords me a lot of time to listen to the challenges faced by the web design and development community—will enable me to bring an “in the trenches” perspective to the W3C. Rachel Andrew provides similar guidance as Fronteers’ representative to the W3C and I relish the opportunity to work with her again2 in this capacity. I honestly wish there were more web designers and developers working within the W3C and my goal is to give voice to their concerns and champion their ideas.
\nI’m a diplomat and a pragmatist. Over the years, I’ve participated in varying capacities for a handful of boards and committees. I’ve chaired small town committees (e.g., the Energy Use Task Force in Hamden, Connecticut), been the co-president of a state political party (Green Party of Connecticut), run homeowners associations, and, of course, led the Web Standards Project, to name but a few. In all of these roles—and in my consulting work—I’ve learned how to manage personalities (and politics), set expectations, and get folks to rally together to achieve common goals.
\nAnyone who knows me will tell you I am incredibly diplomatic. Perhaps more soo than is warranted sometimes. I believe everyone should be heard, but I’m also unwilling to allow individuals to dominate conversations and drown out other viewpoints. I value diverse opinions and appreciate people who challenge convention. In all interactions, I look for common ground and shared goals. I don’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations and have no problem disagreeing with someone, but I will always do it in a civil and respectful way.
\nWhile idealistic—especially when it comes to the web and standards—I’m also a pragmatist. I want to understand problems from multiple angles and use that knowledge to know which battles are worth fighting and when compromise is necessary. And I always seek to build consensus, which is the W3C way.
\nI’ve got experience in non-profit work. You may not realize it, but the W3C does not actually exist as a legal entity. It’s currently in the process of changing that and becoming a non-profit corporation. The Advisory Board is overseeing that process. When I lived in Connecticut, I helped form a non-profit corporation. I’ve also got experience in grant writing and other non-profit related work. I think I could be a real asset in that regard.
\nIf you can vote in this election and think I’d make a good member of the Advisory Board, please vote for me. If you can’t vote, but know someone who can, please encourage them to read this and consider voting for me. I’d be ever so grateful for your help.
\nThank you!
\nIf you follow my work, you may recall that I started a formal mentorship program last year. I had the great privilege of working with two incredibly talented people—Amberley Romo and Manuel Matuzović—for a little over a year and enjoyed the hell out of the experience.
\nI had hoped to kick off a new mentorship session in January, but (as often happens) life got in the way. Now that I’m settled into a new city and a new routine, I’m itching to get things going again. And so I ask: How can I help you develop or further your career on the web?
\nWhether you aspire to work on the web or you’re a veteran of the browser wars, if you think you could benefit from mentorship, I’d like to help. My ideal mentee is someone who’s passionate about the web and is—perhaps most of all—someone who I believe I can help.
\nTo that end, my skills and knowledge will probably be most helpful to people interested in any or all of the these:
\nI’ve got scads of other interests and skills too, but those are probably the ones I’m most confident I can help with.
\nYou don’t need to live near me or even in the same hemisphere. If you happen to be local to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. or live somewhere that I’m traveling to over the next year, we’ll definitely meet in person, but that’s by no means a requirement. I’m based in the Pacific time zone (Seattle, Washington), but I’ll do my best to coordinate a regular time for us to chat that won’t require you hopping on Skype at two in the morning (unless that’s your thing). Email… Skype… Hangouts… I’m happy to work however you’re comfortable.
\nI’m afraid I don’t speak any languages other than English,1 so that artificially restricts the pool of folks I can work with, but don’t worry if you don’t think your English is great. Honestly, it’s probably better than you give yourself credit for. It’s also 100% guaranteed to be better than my attempts at speaking pretty much any language other than English.
\nMuch of my work over the past twenty-plus years has been concentrated in the areas of accessibility and, more broadly, inclusive design. To create a web that can go anywhere and work for anyone, we need a diverse group of people making it happen. Sadly, our industry has a difficult time recruiting, developing, and, most importantly, retaining a diverse workforce. Given the egalitarian ideals that the web was founded on, that’s a travesty.
\nI want to see more diverse faces working on the web, speaking at conferences, writing articles, and getting promoted into leadership positions in design, UX, and development. And so this year I’m doing things a little differently: I will only be taking applications from folks who self-identify as part of an underrepresented group. Out of respect for your privacy, I’m not requiring that you label yourself in any particular way, but I do ask that you check your privilege and refrain from applying if you’re part of a group that is already heavily represented in our industry (such as white cis males).
\nLike last year, the application process is not meant to be challenging or time-consuming. I’d like you to write a public post somewhere on the web—such as on your blog, Medium, Twitter, or Mastodon—that discusses why you love the Web, what you love about working on it (or aspire to work on), and what your goals are for the coming year of your career. I’m not looking for any particular length; I’m trying to get a sense of you, your passion, and where your interests lie. I love seeing people publicly gush about why they love the web, but, if you’re more of a private person, you can write it in a non-public document stored somewhere on the web that you can share with me (such as on DraftIn, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox).
\nOnce you’ve done that, use this site’s contact form to send me the link, along with a brief note about why you’d like me as a mentor. Again, I’m not looking for any particular length, but I would appreciate it if you you could touch on where our passions overlap and how you think I can help. I want to make sure we’re a good fit. And please be honest… if you want me as a mentor because of the connections I have, say that—I appreciate honesty.
\nAnyway, that’s it. No big hoops to jump through. If that feels like too much writing and you’d rather speak to me in real-time, please drop me a line and say as much. I’d be happy to set up a time to chat.
\nIf you know someone who you think would be a good fit for this, please nominate them! All I ask is that you introduce us with some context. The easiest (but most public) way is to @-message us both on Twitter. If you’d rather keep it private, you can kick off a DM thread with us if your nominee is on Twitter too (my DMs are open) or start the conversation by dropping me a note through the contact form on this site or sending me a message on any of the various platforms I frequent (Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on).
\nI’ll keep the lines open through Tuesday, in whatever your local timezone is. I met a ton of amazing folks last year through this process and got to work with two outstanding human beings. I truly look forward to getting to know you and taking one or two of you under my wing.
\nIn hindsight, studying Latin in high school wasn’t the best choice. Oh well. ↩︎
\nI didn’t get to where I am in my life and career on my own. I have a ton of respect and admiration for the folks who’ve helped and mentored me along the way. Molly Holzschlag took me under her wing and taught me so much about public speaking and selflessly working for a better Web. Jeffrey Zeldman made a place for me at A List Apart, heavily influenced my writing, invited me onto his team at Happy Cog, and has both supported and promoted my work for well over a decade now. Jeremy Keith collaborated with me early on and has provided invaluable guidance to me over the years. And these are but a few of the dozens upon dozens of folks I owe my career to and, if I’m being honest, helped me discover my passion.
\nRecognizing all of this, I’ve made a concerted effort to “pay it forward” by finding opportunities for others to hone their craft and improve as professionals. In some cases it’s been recommending them as conference speakers, introducing them to publishers, recommending them for jobs, asking them to collaborate on projects, or simply providing advice and guidance for their careers or their companies. To date, most of these efforts have been one-offs. For a while now I’ve been wanting to work more intensely with one person, but I needed to get settled into my relatively new role at Microsoft (as well as my new role as a father) first.
\nI’m ready now.
\nI am looking for someone to mentor in 2017. If you’re interested in working with me throughout the year, I’m accepting “applications” for the slot through the end of January. As of right now, I’m only comfortable committing to one mentee for 2017, but once I see how it’s going, I may opt to take on additional mentees in the future.
\nTo me, it doesn’t matter to me where you are in your career… no matter how long we’ve been doing something, there’s always room for improvement. When I think about my ideal mentee, I’m looking for someone who’s passionate about the Web and who I think I can do some good for. I don’t care how young or old you are or how long you’ve worked on the Web. I firmly believe we can always benefit from a mentorship.
\nSimilarly, it doesn’t matter to me where you live nor does it matter to me how good your English is (though it’s probably better than you give yourself credit for). If you happen to be local to the Southeastern U.S. or somewhere I’m traveling over the next year, we’ll definitely spend some time getting together in person, but that is by no means a requirement. Email… Skype… Hangouts… I’m happy to work with you no matter where you are.
\nIn order to apply, all I ask is that you write a public post somewhere on the Web that discusses why you love the Web, where you’re at in your career, and what your goals are for the coming year. I’m not looking for a particular length or anything, just trying to get a sense of you, your passions, and your interests.
\nOnce you’ve done that, use this site’s contact form to send me the link, along with a brief write-up as to why you’d like me to mentor you. In particular I’m interested to hear where our passions overlap and how you think I can help you. I want to make sure we are a good fit. And be honest… if you want me as a mentor because of the connections I have, say that; I appreciate honesty.
\nAnyway, that’s it. No big hoops to jump through. I’ll keep the lines open through Tuesday, January 31st in whatever your local timezone is. I look forward to getting to know you and taking one of you under my wing this year.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/looking-for-a-mentor/","tags":["career","mentoring"],"date_published":"2017-01-09T17:00:51Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/appearances/podcasts/2016-12-26-content-for-all/","title":"🎧 Content For All","content_html":"It was such an honor to talk to Jason Ogle of User Defenders. I especially enjoyed discussing my biggest failure.
\n","url":"http://userdefenders.com/podcast/030-content-for-all-with-aaron-gustafson/","tags":["accessibility","career","user experience"],"date_published":"2016-12-26T00:00:00Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/publications/articles/a-funny-thing-happened-to-me-on-the-way-to-2016.../","title":"📄 A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The Way To 2016…","content_html":"I join an impressive list of AEA speakers in reflecting on where we were in our careers 10 years ago.
\n","url":"http://aneventapart.com/news/post/a-funny-thing-happened-to-me-on-the-way-to-20:16","tags":["career","industry"],"date_published":"2016-06-07T00:00:00Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/i-dont-want-to-teach-the-world-to-code/","title":"✍🏻 I Don’t Want to Teach the World to Code… I Want to Teach the World to Problem Solve","summary":"I’ve been wrestling for a while with the notion of “coding” being a necessary 21st century skill.","content_html":"It seems that every other day a new code school opens it doors. In my mid-sized city, Chattanooga, there are no fewer than three businesses centered around teaching “coding” classes1 that I am aware of. And there are at least a half-dozen free or community driven programs and camps on top of that. Most are aimed at youth, but some offer adult education as well. And that, of course, is over and above what’s available in our public and private schools (which is considerable) and a plethora of online options.
\nOn one hand I think this is great. I love to code and I love to share my knowledge of that world with anyone who will listen (I’m sorry, Kelly). Also, as someone who ran a web design studio, I know first hand how hard it is to find talented people to hire. More coders equals a larger talent pool; it’s simple math.
\nCurrently—at least here in the U.S.—the numbers aren’t where we need them to be. We just aren’t graduating enough STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) students. And the pressure to fill open positions has led to a lot of outsourcing and an increased demand for employment visas. As an unemployed or unhappy worker, making yourself employable as a coder sounds like a win-win.
\nCouple this with the constant barrage of news about startup acquisitions and funding rounds and it certainly seems like learning to code is your key to financial stability if not extreme wealth. (The “American Dream,” right?) But it’s not.
\nAs Jerry Davis pointed out so deftly in the Harvard Business Review, the vast majority of startups don’t succeed. Learning to code is not a guarantee of wealth and success. And, let’s be honest, not everyone is wired for coding and that’s okay.
\nSo I’m not sure everyone needs to learn to code. That said, I think this movement (if you can call it that) has merit.
\nFirst off, on the Web side of things, I think learning to code can be empowering. The Web is for everyone and I love to see more and more people using it as a tool to amplify their voices and to build community across the globe. So for that reason alone I’m thrilled these programs exist.
\nThe other reason I like that people are learning to code is that it changes how they see and deal with problems.
\nAs a programmer, I am forced to break lumbering, gnarly problems into simpler, accomplishable tasks. I’m forced to think about cause and effect, of process, of the steps required to achieve the desired outcome.
\nI also experience failure. Constantly. I’ve learned to find the errors in my own logic, to second guess myself, to refine and improve, to refactor my code and my brain. This constant refinement helps me achieve a deeper understanding of my tools and my medium.
\nTo me, those lessons (taught to me through nearly 20 years of coding) are invaluable. These are the sorts of lessons I wish they taught in school, but sadly the U.S. has largely done away with reason and critical thinking in favor of memorization and regurgitation. So maybe it’s something we need to learn at home. Or in a coding class.
\nRegardless, if the world was filled with curious people who asked questions, applied logic, and refined their understanding of the challenges they see every day, I can’t help but think we would all be far better off.
\nI should note that I am lumping a bunch of stuff into the umbrella of “coding” because some of these teach front-end web technologies, others teach those plus back-end stuff in PHP or Python, and others teach maker-style classes focused around robotics and DIY electronics like Arduino. ↩︎
\nI gave this PechaKucha talk on how empathy came to be a central part of my work and life.
\n","social_text":"I gave this PechaKucha talk on how empathy came to be a central part of my work and life.","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/speaking-engagements/finding-empathy-and-the-golden-rule/","tags":["accessibility","career","empathy","equality","inclusion","inclusive design","mentoring","personal","philosophy"],"image":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/undefined","date_published":"2013-12-13T23:00:00Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/welcome-jeff-bridgforth/","title":"✍🏻 Welcome Jeff Bridgforth","summary":"Today, I have the honor of introducing you to the newest Easy team member: Jeff Bridgforth . Jeff comes to us from Bonnier, where he built websites for Popular Science , Popular Photography , Saveur , and Parenting . Being a former…","content_html":"Today, I have the honor of introducing you to the newest Easy team member: Jeff Bridgforth. Jeff comes to us from Bonnier, where he built websites for Popular Science, Popular Photography, Saveur, and Parenting. Being a former publishing guy myself, I’m delighted to be bringing someone on who has a solid grounding in content-rich websites.
\nTrue to his Twitter handle, Jeff is a web craftsman of the highest order. He breezed through the rigorous hurdles of my technical interview, yet is humble about his skills and is always eager to learn more. Jeff has demonstrated a great tenacity in his professional life thus far and we are excited to see how he puts that to work for us.
\nJeff and his family are currently living outside of Orlando, Florida, but we hope to have them relocated to the Scenic City by the summer.
\nWelcome Jeff!
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/welcome-jeff-bridgforth/","tags":["career","personal"],"date_published":"2013-01-15T12:00:56Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/publications/articles/qanda-finding-a-web-designer/","title":"📄 Q&A: Finding a Web Designer","content_html":"Finding talented, reliable people is probably one of the hardest tasks a business owner or manager must do. And, unfortunately, there’s no magic formula to find them.
\n","url":"http://webstandardssherpa.com/ask-the-sherpas/finding-a-web-designer","tags":["industry","career"],"date_published":"2012-11-27T00:00:00Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/honored/","title":"✍🏻 Honored","summary":"Late last week, the nominees for the 2010 .net Awards were announced and I was amazed to find myself nominated for not one, but two awards.","content_html":"Late last week, the nominees for the 2010 .net Awards were announced and I was amazed to find myself nominated for not one, but two awards.
\n![\"\"](\"http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/4908054443_faa37d91eb.jpg\")
The first nomination I received is for “Standards Champion.” It’s an absolute honor to have been nominated alongside Derek Featherstone, Molly Holzschlag, Jeremy Keith, Jeffrey Zeldman, and a handful of other folks who’ve not only played a pivotal role in the widespread adoption of web standards, but who’ve also contributed greatly to my development as a web professional and educator.
\n![\"\"](\"http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4908648118_85008773b5.jpg\")
The second nomination I received was in the category of “Mobile Site of the Year” for colly.com. As some of you probably know, I wrote a little article on adaptive layouts with media queries for .net’s Summer Issue (#205). In that article, I gave the homepage of Mr. Simon Collision a makeover for the iPad and iPhone. Colly was so excited with what I’d done that he used my changes as a baseline to convert the remainder of his site to employ adaptive layouts. The adaptive redesign turned quite a few heads and became an oft-cited example of adaptive layouts in practice.
\nWhile I’ve received numerous awards for my work over the years, these two nominations were greatly appreciated. I offer my sincerest thanks to those who put my name in the hat. Win or lose, I can honestly say that I’m a very happy man.
\nOf course it wouldn’t hurt if you voted for me though. ;-)
\nPublic voting ends on 12 October 2010.
\nFull disclosure: I am also a judge in the .net Awards (as are several other nominees), but I did no lobbying to become a nominee.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/honored/","tags":["career","personal"],"date_published":"2010-08-26T10:51:26Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/job-newyork-presbyterian-hospital/","title":"✍🏻 Job: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital","summary":"The fine follks over at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital are looking for a designer/developer to join their 5-person Intranet team. This year, they will be redesigning their employee intranet and moving from a static website to a…","content_html":"\nThe fine follks over at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital are looking for a designer/developer to join their 5-person Intranet team. This year, they will be redesigning their employee intranet and moving from a static website to a role-based portal. They will also be implementing a new CMS to run the show.So if you’re an experienced designer/developer with good information architecture skills (an ar comfortable working in a Microsoft shop) who is interested in leading a team (not just coding alone in the dark), give them a shout.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/job-newyork-presbyterian-hospital/","tags":["career","web development"],"date_published":"2006-03-26T14:07:28Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/leap/","title":"✍🏻 Leap.","summary":"Well, after much debate and deep deliberation, I did it. I quit my job.","content_html":"Well, after much debate and deep deliberation, I did it. I quit my job.
\nWhy? Well, it was the confluence of a number of factors, some having to do with the work environment at Cronin and Company, others stemming from my desire to be my own boss, do more training/speaking engagements, and to write more. Mostly, though, I think I needed a change.
\nI had been working at Cronin for just over three years, both as a contractor and on staff. I was the lead developer in the Digital department and oversaw/had a hand in most of the work we put out. I’m proud of what we accomplished and I am happy to have set the tone for coding there (web standards, accessibility and all that jazz), but I had pretty much gone as far as I could there. I don’t have any interest in project management (I’m nowhere near that organized) and I had no interest in trying to unseat my boss to take over running the department (I find most meetings a waste of time… hallway discussions are much more productive).
\nI’m not much of a gambler, so shifting to full-time contracting was/is a little scarey for me. Luckily, the good folks at Bolt | Peters were gracious enough to offer me a soft landing. Starting Friday, I joined their staff, part-time, as Senior Web Developer and will be working on ethnio.com and the Ethnio application itself. I’m really excited about working with Nate, Mike, Julian and the rest of the B|P crew. I’m also a huge believer in Ethnio. I think it’s going to revolutionize the usability field.
\nIn addition to my work with B|P, I’ll also be taking a lot more time to focus on my work through Easy Designs. We have a lot of interesting projects coming up—both client work and some stuff of our own—which we will be unveiling over the coming months. In fact, since the word started getting around on Friday, I’ve been swamped with phonecalls about doing new stuff. It’s great to have a lot of people interested in hiring me, but I wish they had projects which started a little later in the year.
\nI really got the teaching bug in 2005. Maybe it was spending so much time working with Molly on the WOW Web Design Tour and doing training sessions for the EPA and Gartner. I had such a blast spreading the gospel of web standards and seeing the lightbulbs go off above the heads of attendees. I suppose it’s not surprising given that I come from a family of teachers. My hope is that I will be able to do more speaking/training/etc. without the constraints of a day job.
\nThen there’s the writing end of things. Looking back at the past year, I’m amazed at how much I ended up getting out there. Articles just kept flowing out of me for some reason. Some were self-published, others ended up gracing the pages of Digital Web Magazine and A List Apart, the latter being where I also took the graciously offered position of Production Editor.
\nBook work was also in the cards for me as I offered my informal assistance/opinions to Jeremy on early drafts of his fantastic DOM Scripting tome and worked side-by-side with Jen Robbins and Derek Featherstone to completely revamp the 3rd Edition of Web Design in a Nutshell to bring it in-line with web standards and current best practices. The timeline was pretty tight, but I managed to bang out three chapters on CSS hacks, JavaScript, AJAX and the DOM in about 2 weeks of evenings and weekends. It’ll be coming out later this month and it’s been really exciting to have been a part of it. It was such a great experience, in fact, that I’m in the process of brainstorming a few titles of my own… but more on that later.
\nSo here I am, making the move to the uncertain/exhilerating/terrifying/fantastic world of freelancing. I am glad I’m doing it and I really appreciate all of the words of encouragement I’ve gotten from friends and colleagues. The web community is truly that… a community. They are a close social safety net who look out for one another and I couldn’t hope to be a part of a better group of people. Many thanks to all of you and I hope I can be as much help if any of you ever decide to consider this leap yourselves.
\nPS - If you want my old job, it’s available.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/leap/","tags":["career","personal"],"date_published":"2006-02-14T17:58:34Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/got-ajax-skills-odeo-beckons/","title":"✍🏻 Got AJAX Skills? Odeo beckons","summary":"The fine folks over at Odeo are looking for an “ AJAX Engineer ” to round out their web dev team. If you live & breathe JavaScript, CSS , XHTML and live in or around San Francisco, drop them a line (jobs [at] odeo [dot] com). Everyone I…","content_html":"The fine folks over at Odeo are looking for an “AJAX Engineer” to round out their web dev team. If you live & breathe JavaScript, CSS, XHTML and live in or around San Francisco, drop them a line (jobs [at] odeo [dot] com). Everyone I know that works there seems to love it, making me wish I lived a little closer to SF.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/got-ajax-skills-odeo-beckons/","tags":["API","JavaScript","career"],"date_published":"2006-01-09T15:21:02Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/gartner-wants-you/","title":"✍🏻 Gartner wants you","summary":"My friends at Gartner are hiring a new member for their web team. If you are within commuting distance of Stamford, CT (about 45 minutes outside of NYC by train), I highly recommend considering this job as I know first-hand how awesome…","content_html":"My friends at Gartner are hiring a new member for their web team. If you are within commuting distance of Stamford, CT (about 45 minutes outside of NYC by train), I highly recommend considering this job as I know first-hand how awesome this team is to work with.
\nYou’ll need the following areas of knowledge (in addition to a thirst for more):
\nIf you’re interested, email my friend Aidan (aidan [dot] brewer [at] gartner [dot] com) and let him know I sent you.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/gartner-wants-you/","tags":["web standards","career"],"date_published":"2005-12-04T18:30:33Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/need-a-job/","title":"✍🏻 Need a job?","summary":"I’ve been informed of a great position in southern Connecticut for a strong standards designer/developer. The full-time position is at dLife.com , a site whose primary focus is providing information and support to individuals and…","content_html":"I’ve been informed of a great position in southern Connecticut for a strong standards designer/developer. The full-time position is at dLife.com, a site whose primary focus is providing information and support to individuals and families touched by diabetes. The parent company, LifeMed Media, is forming a formidable web team and are planning some great new material for this 11,000+ page site. There’s lots of content to play with and a heavy focus on standards. If you’ve got mad CSS skills and a penchant for semantic markup, this may be up your alley. As the site’s focus is the diabetic community (and diabetes can affect your vision), accessibility knowledge is also a good skill to bring to the table.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/need-a-job/","tags":["career","accessibility","web standards"],"date_published":"2005-10-19T17:07:27Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/adding-more-to-my-plate/","title":"✍🏻 Adding more to my plate","summary":"It’s funny, but the more I take on, the more zen I get about work. Perhaps it’s the recent addition of a daily trek to the gym in the wee hours of the morning which is getting my day off to a better start. Or maybe it’s the Pragmatic…","content_html":"It’s funny, but the more I take on, the more zen I get about work. Perhaps it’s the recent addition of a daily trek to the gym in the wee hours of the morning which is getting my day off to a better start. Or maybe it’s the Pragmatic philosophy which is beginning to take hold since finishing The Pragmatic Programmer and starting Agile Web Development with Rails. Who knows, but I am thankful for the calm.
\nSo what else have I added to my already overfull plate? Well, I recently joined the staff of A List Apart as a copy editor. In fact Ross Howard’s High-Resolution Image Printing (in Issue 202) marks my editorial debut at the famed publication. I am very excited about getting to work with Erin, Jeffrey, Eric, Jason and the rest of the ALA all-stars as I have been an avid reader since I discovered it back in 2000. If you are reading an article and notice an overabundance of <abbr> and <dfn>, there’s a good chance I am to blame.
I am also pleased to confirm that I will be speaking at SXSW Interactive in March of 2006. At present, I am working on one session with Jeremy Keith and two other panels which are still in the formative stages. I will have more details to provide you all in the coming weeks.
\nAlso to come are some great award announcements, a few more articles, and another potentially big announcement in the web standards arena. In the mean time, I am preparing for a private web standards training session down in North Carolina and next week’s trip to Silicon Valley, where Molly, Andy and I will be putting on a great 3-day training session as part of the Web Design and Project Management Tour from WOW.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/adding-more-to-my-plate/","tags":["web standards","presentations","career"],"date_published":"2005-09-07T11:48:14Z"}]}