Ze Home of Evan Samek

After picking up a few more clients recently, I am getting bombarded with the same old questions, which I will list here.

Can I get a timeline on when the site will be finished?

No, you can’t.  It’s not that I don’t want to give you a specific time when the project will be finished, its just that too much of it depends on you (the client).  You need to sign my contract, give me content, feedback, reviews, and opinions.  The process of creating and implementing a website is a two party business.  Giving you a timeline is like saying, “Hey! I like that date, it makes a smiley face on my iCal if I make your entire project due here!”.  It’s that arbitrary.

I want to use the logo my wife made and have that as a basis for the whole site.

Sir, honestly, its drawn in pencil.  It lacks color, depth, and professionally.  Why do you even want a website?  Are you marketing your brand/self or just want to showcase your wife’s ability to use a #2?  Use it for a basis for the whole site?  No sir, no.  This is just a bad representation of yourself and your site.

So I want a website with a back end, custom design, and a year worth of dedicated hosting.  Can you do it for like $300?

I certainly can, but I won’t.  People STILL have no idea what it takes to deliver a fully functional, hosted, robust website.  Web developers put tremendous amount of time into the tiniest aspects of a website, so at first your misunderstanding of the value of this work is acceptable.  But to give me that sad-puppy-dog-face when I explain how I can’t do it for that amount is just heartbreaking.  I’m sorry already!  I really wish I could drop half of my serious clients and do your website for you in 2 days with a $300 dollar budget, but….I just can’t: it’s like throwing away the business!  Make me some kind of Indian god with 8 arms, then I will show you some awesomeness for $300, but that surgery would be quite expensive.

Can you make the content text something other than Georgia (or tahoma, verdana, arial, courier…)?

No, I cannot.  I already explained how these fonts are standardized amongst all browsers and OS’s.  No, I know you have heard of sIFR, but it is insane to apply it to the entire document. (I know I know, wait till CSS3 rolls out)

I would love it if you made a flash splash page before visitors got to the main site!

What, you mean like this?  No.  Bad design choice.

UPDATE:

So if you make me the website, can you also make me #1 on Google search results?

Sigh.  Ma’am, do you know how many websites there are?  Your business is called ‘Susane Boyle’s Cupcakes’.  Havn’t you seen her youtube video?  It’s been viewed 41,000,000 million times.  How. The. Hell. Am. I. Going. To. Compete. With. This?  (thanks @gayadesign)

That’s right.

While walking to class today, I had a pretty sad epiphany.  I will be working for the rest of my life; constantly.  As I approach the end of my academic life, I have been getting more and more detached from school and social life, and more integrated into the professional work lifestyle.  Clients are becoming more available, I have become ever more skilled in my trade, and I find myself enjoying what I do far more than going to school.  And its worthwhile.  I see results from my web development, and I also have been receiving recommendations from previous clients happy with my work.  I think its safe to say that I have started to make a name for myself.

But, this is the end. This is the last year that I can goof off and relax more than normal.  Its sad to say the least, because I have some qualms with my current direction.  Success is nice, but I feel like I now know how to make this transition while staying happy and relaxed.

Do something you love, and make sure you explored the possibilities.

I love what I do.  Its just that simple.  Most people go into a general discipline that they think they would like to work in, but that will most likely lead to unhappiness.  You need to experiment!  I switched my majors about 5 times.  Here they are in order, so you can see the progression:

1. Undecided
2. Music
3. Film
4. Psychology
5. Neurochemistry and physiology
6. Philosophy
7. Computer Science
8. Undecided
9. Philosophy

I mean come on! I thought it was only 5, but I guess I have changed my major 9 times!  I consider this to be a good thing however, because i tested my tolerance to what I would like for four years, and finally settled on just doing philosophy to graduate and go into web development full time.  My journey led me to web development, and after all of this exploring, I have strong cause to believe in my cause.

You have all the time in the world.

I will be in school for an extra year, but I really don’t care.  You have all the time in the world to graduate, there is no point in sacrificing sleep and stress to graduate when everyone else does.  When you graduate has no measure whatsoever in how successful you will be.  I see too many people who are a mission from hell to graduate on time, and honestly they are unhappy.  This also follows from the previous section in that you are working so hard to graduate at some date, that you never take a minute to explore other disciplines.  This is what I believe causes so many people to eventually become what they worked so hard at becoming, but realize after all that work that they may be interested in something else.  Such a common mistake.

Don’t follow family trends simply to impress

I also never understand why people whose whole family’s members become a lawyer, feel that they should also become a lawyer.  Think for yourself!  You are not your parents, and honestly, there is no gene that you get from heredity that predisposes you for a particular discipline.  Maybe you are good at math, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be specifically a mathematician.  You could truly do anything in the science field.  If this is you, you are limiting yourself so much, I beg you to just take a semester or two to just take classes outside of what your parents took, you are not them.

I know this post came out of nowhere and has nothing to do with the web, but every once in a while I will be posting more personal thoughts that I have.  Hope you all don’t mind.
Evan