I was talking to a friend this morning, and realized something. It seems that credentials can be selectively respected, or ignored, depending on the situation. Say, for instance, that you feel threatened by someone. You may examine that person’s credentials and look for something specific. Not seeing what you want, you deem them unqualified. But what happens if you’ve got work to do, or you’re too set in your ways, or you’re unwilling to learn? Do you pawn your workload off onto someone who has “experience” instead? Is the credential so important then? If you feel so threatened by someone so as to wave their lack of a specific set of letters in their face despite the obvious presence of education, experience and other worthy awesomeness, well… you suck.

I speak from experience on this, in a way. Having no CS background, I find myself often wondering if I’m doing things “the right way”. I’ve learned a lot in the time I’ve been doing software development, but lately it’s been tough staying on top of things. I’m working with a great bunch of people now, developers who are really good at what they do, and I worry that I’m not going to hold up. Do my best, I guess. This was a rough week. It started off good, and had a sour end today, when code I had checked into the repository yesterday no longer seems to work. I’m on call this weekend, so time in front of a computer will be an inevitability, so maybe I will work on it. After this project, I go back to developing a new project in a vacuum, but I wish I would have been able to do that project first, so my contributions to my current endeavour would be more substantial.

Speaking of credentials, or lack thereof, a friend of mine inspired me to participate in NaNoWriMo, this coming November. I am in WAY over my head, but it should be a crazy, hectic month. I know I’m not allowed to outline anything until the month starts, but that isn’t going to keep me from thinking about what to do.

When I was doing the photo challenge in February, I kept looking for an opportunity to use Opeth’s Windowpane as a photo caption. It never happened because the shot really needed to be staged in order for it to work and I would have felt weird asking someone to participate. Anyway, the song is fantastic. It showcases Ankerfelt’s non-death metal vocal style. Enjoy.