Products ranging from hair color in a box to tax preparation software promise to make our lives easier -- and more affordable -- by arming us to achieve expert-quality results without having to actually pay an expert to do the work.

While I'm a big-time proponent of the figure-it-out-on-your-own lifestyle -- I've dabbled in DIY lip balm, oh, yeah -- I can definitely proclaim that I still need the assistance of certain experts in certain fields to get certain things done exactly right.
This attractive graphic, for instance, I've just cobbled together myself in under eight minutes, thanks to the brilliant assistance of the web site canva.com. The possibilities of making beautiful visuals are endless with this no-graphic-designer-necessary WYSIWYG free software.
What a stroke of genius that I'd stumbled upon it. Or is it? It's been weighing on my mind pretty heavily recently that, if I'm going to offer a full basket of services in the web content support arena, I'd better know a thing or two about layout and design.
Heck, being just a wordsmith might not cut it in this day and age, what with the armies of savvy, multi-talented, well-rounded college grads out there.
This attractive graphic, for instance, I've just cobbled together myself in under eight minutes, thanks to the brilliant assistance of the web site canva.com. The possibilities of making beautiful visuals are endless with this no-graphic-designer-necessary WYSIWYG free software.
What a stroke of genius that I'd stumbled upon it. Or is it? It's been weighing on my mind pretty heavily recently that, if I'm going to offer a full basket of services in the web content support arena, I'd better know a thing or two about layout and design.
Heck, being just a wordsmith might not cut it in this day and age, what with the armies of savvy, multi-talented, well-rounded college grads out there.
Indeed, I am an idealist. Do what you dare to dream and all that. But I'm also a realist. I know my limitations. I know when to hand it off to an expert. My hairstylist would kill me if I tried to cover my roots in dye from a box (she may just have to suffer there, because coloring is wicked expensive!).
And I think I'll hire a designer to take my words and make them glow using fancy fonts and all that other magic they paid good money learning to do.
And I think I'll hire a designer to take my words and make them glow using fancy fonts and all that other magic they paid good money learning to do.