Just because you can type does not mean you can code

Thinking a lot about tools vs. skills as the web evolves and the available toolset grows.

Tools are great and every excellent craftsmen knows how to get massive leverage from good tools. The danger is mistaking an understanding of a tool for having skills. Just because you can pick up a pencil or swing a hammer does not mean you can design and build a house.

Clumsier and clumsier hands are able to manipulate the web. With modern programing languages and cloud services lots of people can push services onto the network. With platforms in eCommerce, content management, and template based app builders, with a very basic understanding of the tools, you can produce something that used to take skills.

Just because you can type does not mean you can code.

Don’t get comfortable until you are as far to the right as you can get on the graph. Know the tools, don’t be dependent on the tools. Know how to work with them, but also be able to work around them.

At some point you will want to change something; you will want to customize it and make it your own. You will want to go beyond what your tools can do. When this happens, you either have the skills or you fail.