Examples of [BLANKS] include:
- Musician – Music
- Designer – Design
- Chef – Food
- Writer – Writing
I’m going to say no. I went back and forth with this a while last night, while I was trying to learn to play the piano — which I’m getting decent at…
I feel like I can really appreciate good design on the web, but I’m not a skilled designer.
Same with music. I’m not a great musician, but I can appreciate music’s most significant works.
Anyway, just a question that’s been on my mind.
God, Quit being philosophical and get laid…
Appreciate or fully appreciate? What level of ‘good’ do you intend?
What I mean is:
You don’t have to be good at web design at all to appreciate a well-designed webpage because a well-designed webpage’s design is not an object of focus, but just part of a positive experience. HOWEVER are you really enjoying the design or just the web experience, and can you separate those?
I think you have to be on equal footing with the creator of a particular thing in order to FULLY appreciate all the intricacies. Does this mean as a less-than-mediocre musician myself I don’t appreciate/enjoy music? No. But when that trumpet player squeals out that high note perfectly in pitch that somehow blends with the more bass sounds of the rest of the orchestra, not having played a trumpet more than goofing off, can I truly appreciate/enjoy the feat of playing a super c (or higher) perfectly in pitch and without shattering everyone’s eardrums? Probably not… I enjoy hearing the sound, but to the totally uneducated, if it’s done well, it will blend in and not even seem like THAT big of a deal… to the people like me who have dabbled, I’ll go “Wow, that’s cool sounding” and then the professional trumpeteer sitting next to me will think something like “Oh man… I’ve worked 4 years to be able to hit and sustain that note and I’ve NEVER been able to hit it that solidly without going sharp near the end of the hold.”
It’s the difference between enjoy and appreciate I guess… Enjoying you can do on many many levels and any person of any level (or lack) of expertise can enjoy something, but I would to fully appreciate something, you would likely have to be an expert in that field as well (I mean, how many newbs like Clayton fully appreciate a page that is fully valid/compliant, renders the same in all browsers and even on pda’s/phones, prints well, gracefully degrades, is SEO friendly, provides a wonderful user experience and all the while properly establishes a unique identity for the client?)
Oh P.S. – Save it for marriage.
(I love you Clayton, you know I kid out of love)
Rick,
You’re a punk. Probably a good idea though. HA.
Well, if you don’t consider yourself a “good” designer, then I’m poop – but I agree with your conclusion. I am a shining example of someone who can truly appreciate food, but I’m no chef. I appreciate design (largely due to your influence), but I’m not “good”. Another example – I’m not a good football player, but I certainly can appreciate good football.
I just try to convince myself that I’m good at everything and then I don’t worry about the rest. It seems to work most of the time.
I think we’re missing an important aspect of this…Rick touches on it.
Expertise. You don’t have to be a good basketball player to be a good basketball coach. You do have to know a hell of a lot about basketball.
I’m not sure I see the comparison really tbh. That’s more like saying you don’t have to be a good web designer to be a manager of web-operations, but you have to know a whole lot about the web and design in general, just maybe not the best at putting it into practice.
I also don’t really know why I’m posting here with no value to add. Sorry. That’s my new tagline.
Rick Petersen – No Value Added