3 Books that changed my thinking

As a web designer & developer and top of that running a small agency, your time is always shuffled between technology & administration. I need to always look for the next project at the same time, thinking about generating money for salary, office expenses etc.

When I was first introduced to A List Apart it was 2000 and I was with Teleseen software. I dint take much interest at that time, since I was deeply buried myself in Flash & Dreamweaver. After quitting and started my own organization & after 21/2 years I re-entered A List Apart in late 2003. Something hit me very straight. I am doing jobs, which are obsolete.

Taking the cue from Jeffery Zeldman, and 2 months of reading of Eric Meyer and countless blogs which pushed me from the grave I was. I am totally surrendered to Standards compliance. It's not like your hippie way of finding something new and getting towards it, As I grow, the importance of the meaning of life and how every profession in this world is inter-connected slowly appeared from my "knowledgeable" ignorance.

2 months before, my friend Chetan send me the books I have asked for. 3 Books, which literally changed the way I think about the web today.

Designing with Web Standards - Jeffery Zeldman - The "Bible" or "Qur-ran" or "Bhagvat Geetha" of the New Web
Web Standards Solutions - Dan Cederholm - The "how-to" practical guide for Web Standards
Defensive Design for the web - 37 Signals - How to create websites that are defensive in nature but actually makes your customers smile.

After going thru these books, I am rejunevated and has a new framework in my mind about the web. What I thought about the web, in last 2 years has changed literally, not just as a developer, but as a user, after going thru these books. More than development & technical stuff, What I have learned the most is the "bigger" picture of visualizing for the web.

It's been actually a great head start for so many new things to happen. I am happy, I take the first lead in making our agency, a model agency to work & strive towards standards. Although, I am not a leading thinker in that line, I can always proudly say, I took the first step.

May the journey begin for you all!!