From the 7th century, farmers already had windmills for irrigation and milling. Windmill blades were mounted on the upper end while the lower part of the windmill was in charge of removing the grain, in most cases cereals, coffee and grapes. Some centuries earlier, Hero of Alexandria (20-62 AD) had invented the first windmill. It served to move the bellows of an organ.
Throughout history, and in many occasions and disciplines, the same thing was said over and over. When the wind starts to blow, there have always been two kinds of people: those who run for shelter… and the ones who get out to build windmills.
If we talk about web development, in recent years new frameworks have emerged to make developers’ lifes easier. Bootstrap, Foundation, Angular, Knockout or Ember are some of them. In case the title of this blog doesn’t make my position about the topic clear, I will say that I like everything about them… but not them.
In a world where, apparently, we are so alike, it is essential for us to differentiate ourselves from the competition and make our personal branding recognisable. Here, we have reached a point that sounds familiar to economists and product managers, the value added.
We have to transmit the idea that the value added of an application cannot be developed with a framework, but it has to be created from it.
I don’t want to fill the entire web with monogamous components with a predefined functionality and design. I want to be a recognised bigamous and don’t be content with something prefabricated as my personal branding. Let Bootstrap be the example to follow, but it shouldn’t be the solution to apply. Let the interface of our products talk about us and not about others. Let’s encourage that. Let’s give that to our website and web users. They deserve it and we deserve it too. Let’s create our own Bootstrap to develop our applications. Let’s not hide behind its existence and limit ourselves just to use it.
We should not encourage the idea of going out to the street wearing the same clothes for the simple fact that it protects us from the cold. Let’s seek virtue in the difference. Let’s put that value at stake. Because, in the end, either you are different or you are cheap. At least, I don’t like being cheap, even less to hide myself from the wind when it blows.
This article was published originally in Medium.
