Many years ago, I played around with HTML. I even built some webpages that I was pretty proud of. Sadly, those pages are long gone now. Once I got a job, I also stopped exploring HTML and have now forgotten most of what I learned.
Today, my job is changing. New responsibilities are actually requiring this past knowledge. Thanks to some co-workers and friends, I have found some good
resources for re-learning some HTML. Although, I'm struck by how much has changed in 15 years.
I feel caught off-guard about how quickly my job went from not requiring this skillset to needing it. I feel a bit guilty that I didn't keep current on HTML. I'm unsettled because I went from feeling confident about my work day-after-day to feeling like I'm inefficient at what I do.
I've heard it said that people get promoted to the level of their own incompetence. Have I reached mine?
I don't write that last paragraph for pity and I'm sorry for any readers that might take it that way. Honestly, it is more of an observation of age. I can remember training an older co-worker to upload photos to an FTP site or explaining Facebook to someone who is still leary of using a computer. In each of those cases, there was a bit of frustration from these people. Was it frustration of trying to learn something new or were the concepts so foreign they were frustrated by how much time has passed? Either case, I understand the frustration better than ever.
I acknowledge these feelings, but I can't stay focused on them. This is the world we live in and I need to update my skillsets. While it would be nice to have formal training, one of the greatest things about the Internet is the free knowledge it provides. So, I move on, I learn, I train, and one day I will feel confident again about walking into work.
FYI, I've written this post in an HTML editor instead of using Blogger's easy WYSIWYG editor. Sometimes you just have to
jump right in.
