Avoid Being a Jerk

( If you subscribe to the web feed for this column, you may want to know that the agenda of this column is now changed. The purpose of this column will now be to make comments concerning other people's writings. )

The Writer: Seth Godin
The Article: Reflexology

In this article, Seth, made reference to two web designers, one who likes roll-overs and the other one who does not. The point of Seth's article is to discuss the "When you have a hammer ..." reflexive approach to finding solutions.

I design websites. I have learned that I can not always have what I desire.

Cool Design or Web Standards. I am not a purist when it comes to web standards, but I am also not one who completely ignores them. ( I wish all of my clients were willing to pay me the higher fees it would take to make their websites more compliant and more accessible, but they are not. ) Sometimes, I have to sacrifice a design that would be "really cool" to be more focused on compliance. Even though, much has been accomplished in the world of table-less designs, there are "cool" things that you can do with tables that are still not doable with a completely table-less design.

I am addicted to Photoshop Montages and also to Bryce 5.5 (Daz Rules!) However, when it comes to creating designs for websites, I have to sacrifice my desire for Graphic creations for the reality of low speed connections. As an example, take a look at the Cohesive Integrity website. At the top of the page, about 200 pixels from the left margin, a graphic compromise begins. ( I hate that compromise! ) I would prefer a 2000 pixel wide graphic, but the state of tech usage in 2006, precludes this.

Also take a look at the left side graphic. The original graphic from which this is taken is 1300 pixels wide and 650 pixels high and includes the Cohesive Integrity Logo as well as the pillar and the word cohesion. I would prefer to display my entire graphic, but neither the size of many monitors nor the fact of low speed connections allow me to do as I wish. In fact, if you watched how this web page loaded, you might notice that the word "Cohesion" loads seperately from the marble pillar which supports it. That is another compromise. I use this marble pillar in several places on this website, but the word which is displayed in red may be "Leadership" or "Becoming" or some other word.

My point is that when you have a hammer, you need to learn to practice what the Greek language of two thousand years ago called "prautes." You need to learn that your preferences and your desires should not rule over wisdom. For those of you who appreciate my Cohesive Integrity work here is a new maxim: "When desires are allowed to drive convictions, your pathway leads towards Denial."