It’s not the CMS, fool!

Expression Engine.  TextPattern.  WordPress.  Movable Type. These are just a tiny sample of the CMSs (Content Management Systems) that power most of the blogs you read on the internet today. They are fast, powerful, and easy to use (for the most part).

As a group of web standards evangelists, it’s very fortunate that we have these systems readily available to us. And that they power our sites in such a way that we can still do what we’re supposed to do (produce clean, semantic design work).

However, some people get downright political about which engine they choose to drive their site, and why. Even to go so far as ridiculing those who decide to go with a different type of system.

Here is where the point is sorely missed.

Although the choice of what management engine is a very important one, as it will dictate the ease in which you can edit and update your site. Never forget that the real, most useful hands-on tool that you will ever use: your own knowledge. What you learn will carry you past any CMS that you may or may not use in the future.

Take the time to build an entire site by hand, just to train yourself. Only practice and discipline will teach you as a web designer how to truly master clean code, semantics, and CSS positioning. That doesn’t mean that you should build just any site by hand, only a practice one, you know, to keep the design-ninja skills sharp. This is related to the advice I give artists on not giving up the pencil. Keep what you learn rooted at the most basic level, and it will help boost your other skills and knowledge by a tenfold.
Take the time to learn a little bit about SQL as well, if you can. Not sure if you should? Consider this: Your site is probably powered by some kind of management system right now. What if the CMS project dies, and you’re left with a legacy system. Or what if some fantastic new type of system comes into play that makes your current setup look like junk? How are you going to get your data out of the old and into the new, unless you don’t have the knowledge to at least try something? If your lucky, you’ll have a way of converting the old content into the new system. If not, then you may have a problem, if you can’t get your database ported over properly.
When it comes down to it, I guess all I’m trying to say is… don’t worry so much about what system you need to run. You need to get all that noise out of your head, so that you can get right down to the basics of what you need to learn to become a better designer.