Nate Klaiber

Does Money Deter Creativity?

One thing I love to do in my spare time is play basketball. If you would ask my wife, she might say it takes up more than just my spare time. Well, with our recent move to New Philadelphia we are just down the street from the local park and basketball courts. This makes it so easy to play at any time. Last week the weather started warming up and I found myself at the courts several times. I have played at these courts for many years, and know most of the people who come to play. I have noticed something recently: Many of the kids that used to play there aren’t playing there anymore. The reason? They recently graduated from high school and are going to play basketball at the collegiate level. This is deterrent enough to keep them at home — if they are playing at the courts and hurt themselves, there goes their scholarship money. But they have spent all of their high school years playing here — why stop now? The love for the game of basketball has now been monetized and will change how and when they choose to play.

I also looked at this in perspective of two other areas of my life: youth ministry and web development.

• Youth Ministry is what I went to school for. It’s what I spent 4 years studying and doing. Having graduated a few years ago I no longer have a desire to be a full time youth minister. Why? Because I have seen first hand of several examples where people make the jump to full time and then have a paycheck hanging over their head. This paycheck is their livelihood. So, they better be careful to adhere to what they say and how they act. They can no longer be 100% genuine, for fear of being reprimanded or lose their job. They have to put on a mask — one of a position — and they have to adhere to the guidelines of the church, even if sometimes isn’t what they truly believe.

  Disclaimer: I know this is not the case for all — but for many that I have seen thus far.

  Why’can't they be real now? What are they afraid of? What is holding them back? Money.

• Web development is my job and my passion. I love what I do and wouldn’t trade my job for anything else. However, I have seen my fair share of websites gone bad. Why? Because there are designers and developers out there who are forced to do certain things to achieve financial goals. This is not bad in and of itself, especially since much of the Internet can be monetized with e-commerce — but I am talking about development decisions. Security decisions, design decisions, navigation decisions, etc. These decisions get skewed (or even forced) when money is the primary decision. Some will skimp on security because it may not seem like a worthwhile investment (until they are compromised — which could then be too late). Some will skimp on doing layout properly because it takes a little extra time to tweak CSS — and tables would just be the quicker route. Some will skimp on doing things right simply because of timeframe constraints. All of this comes back to the almighty dollar. Decisions are made, not for the better, but for the better financially. Why are there so many crappy websites out there? Money.

I am privileged to have a job where I am a full-time programmer/developer. My sole job and purpose is to make sure the site is up to quality and security standards. To keep watching for new techniques, to keep developing, to evolve (it is the web — and changes can be made as time goes on). I am able to track statistics and see what is working or not working. From there, I can begin to develop a new plan of action for something else that may work better. I am able to get user feedback and really do something with it. I am able to make sure our websites are up to standards and developed for accessibility.

Note: I am not saying I am the perfect developer, I am simply saying I love my role where I am.

If I were still doing freelance, I wouldn’t have those freedoms or options because most of the time it means more financial investment.

I spent some time doing freelance in the past, and only found myself frustrated. Not only because it took so much time (and so little money in return), but because I couldn’t continue to build and monitor my work. I could do something, hand it over, and have it skewed by someone else. People have limited budgets but want full blown websites. They want something for nothing, and since this profession is in many cases undervalued (after all, they could get their brothers mothers uncles sister who took an HTML course in high school to build their website), it makes it tough to really stress the value of a fine tuned website. In my geographical area specifically, there are no good web developers. I don’t say this out of ignorance — but we do not have one web development company in a surrounding 20 mile radius that can build fully functional websites — websites that are usable, accessible, and functional. However, they can build you a website for cheap and tell you that you are getting a deal (Just don’t ask them for traffic details or how to measure success of a website). This area is specifically full of script kiddies. Especially when it comes to PHP — they can pick up a contact form, pick up a newsletter form, etc from any array of free scripts — or even open source projects. They know nothing about what is going on, but they install it and then charge for it (as if it were their own). This makes for many insecure and ‘patched’ websites that do nothing more than make a client happy (even though there may not be any traffic).

What do you think? As a designer or developer does money hinder your job in any aspect?