If you are a digital creator on the web (designer, developer, etc.), building your own website continues to be an underrated way to learn skills and build your career.

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At the very least you should own a basic one page with your name, a photo, your background and links to any public profiles. I wouldn't stop there though.
My personal experience: designing, developing, and writing https://t.co/N3rFIlFkBs has continued to pay dividends. It got me every one of my jobs in the last 7 years, built me a reputation, introduced me to friends, helped me broaden my skillset, made me easier to find.
All the tools you need are free, well-designed and easy to get started with.
Designing a website is easier than ever thanks to free design tools like @figmadesign and the endless landscape of inspiration on @dribbble and @Behance
Building a website is easier than ever thanks to static site generators like @GatsbyJS, Nextjs @vercel , Hugo, Jeykyll, and css libraries like @tailwindcss.
Hosting used to be a big barrier to entry, but no longer is thanks to tools like @Netlify and @getRender. Simply connect a @github repo, and they will automatically detect your tools and starting hosting your site, keeping it up to date with your main branch.
With all these tools, as long as you get over your own perfectionism or fear of sharing something, you can quickly put something up on the web and unlock a lot of new fields to explore.
Explore visual design, front-end development, build tools, web performance, SEO, writing, photography, illustration, marketing, teaching, interviewing, integrations with tools like newsletter services like @ConvertKit , and @Mailchimp or search tools like @algolia.
On top of that, you can take everything you learn and use it in your day job or teach it to others.
Since it's your site, you can experiment and play in ways that may not be possible in a business context.
You gain empathy for other functions and learn their tools. Developers understanding designers, marketers understanding developers, etc.
If you haven't built and launched your own person website, blog, or portfolio, what's holding you back?

More from Tech

I could create an entire twitter feed of things Facebook has tried to cover up since 2015. Where do you want to start, Mark and Sheryl? https://t.co/1trgupQEH9


Ok, here. Just one of the 236 mentions of Facebook in the under read but incredibly important interim report from Parliament. ht @CommonsCMS
https://t.co/gfhHCrOLeU


Let’s do another, this one to Senate Intel. Question: “Were you or CEO Mark Zuckerberg aware of the hiring of Joseph Chancellor?"
Answer "Facebook has over 30,000 employees. Senior management does not participate in day-today hiring decisions."


Or to @CommonsCMS: Question: "When did Mark Zuckerberg know about Cambridge Analytica?"
Answer: "He did not become aware of allegations CA may not have deleted data about FB users obtained through Dr. Kogan's app until March of 2018, when
these issues were raised in the media."


If you prefer visuals, watch this short clip after @IanCLucas rightly expresses concern about a Facebook exec failing to disclose info.
I think about this a lot, both in IT and civil infrastructure. It looks so trivial to “fix” from the outside. In fact, it is incredibly draining to do the entirely crushing work of real policy changes internally. It’s harder than drafting a blank page of how the world should be.


I’m at a sort of career crisis point. In my job before, three people could contain the entire complexity of a nation-wide company’s IT infrastructure in their head.

Once you move above that mark, it becomes exponentially, far and away beyond anything I dreamed, more difficult.

And I look at candidates and know-everything’s who think it’s all so easy. Or, people who think we could burn it down with no losses and start over.

God I wish I lived in that world of triviality. In moments, I find myself regretting leaving that place of self-directed autonomy.

For ten years I knew I could build something and see results that same day. Now I’m adjusting to building something in my mind in one day, and it taking a year to do the due-diligence and edge cases and documentation and familiarization and roll-out.

That’s the hard work. It’s not technical. It’s not becoming a rockstar to peers.
These people look at me and just see another self-important idiot in Security who thinks they understand the system others live. Who thinks “bad” designs were made for no reason.
Who wasn’t there.
"I really want to break into Product Management"

make products.

"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."

Make Products.

"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."

MAKE PRODUCTS.

Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics –
https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.


There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.

You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.

But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.

And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.

They find their own way.

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