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John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

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Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#111

Post by sskates »

cooldeal wrote: post #54

The bottom 80% of apps split just 3% of the revenue. From http://www.fastcompany.com/1792313/striking-it-rich-in-the-a... Developer Daniel Markham calls iPhone development “App Store Roulette,” and Andy Finnell of the software studio Fortunate Bear cautions against hoping for App Store success. “You’re betting a lot of this on luck, and the odds are stacked against you," Finnell says. "You’d have better odds playing…

It's not as if creating a webapp is a more certain path to success. I'm certain that the bottom 80% of webapps split less than 1% of the revenue.

Is there any platform out there where you're guaranteed to make money just by showing up?

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#112

Post by nadam »

cppsnob wrote: post #80

I was sad to see that Gruber couldn't step out of his Apple bubble to tackle this topic (or any topic, ever), so I will: Everyone who thinks "I should be developing for platform X" is thinking far too small. Take a look around you.. how many of the great companies were formed developing for a particular platform (unless it's their own)? Almost none. In 10 years, do you want to be the old and busted equivalent of the…

Exactly. And also every developer should be aware that this Joel classic also applies here:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html

Apple's goal (and every other platform maker's goal) is to commoditize app development. There are already hundreds of thousands of apps in the store. I don't say that developers shouldn't develop for iOS, I just say that Gruber's article generates false hopes for the developer masses.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#113

Post by GHFigs »

coderdude wrote: post #59
GHFigs wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's disingenuous to focus on Apple at a Mac/iOS-centric symposium?

Why are you even asking? You know that's not what he said.

Why are you even asking?

Because this (and several other comments on this submission) appear to attack Gruber for not talking about Android, and I think that is an extremely unfair criticisim given that he was speaking to iOS and Mac developers at an event about iOS and Mac development.

More generally, I have a morbid interest in HN's tendency to flip it's collective shit whenever Gruber's name is mentioned, and have honestly lost faith in my ability to tell when that sort of criticism is intentional or not. So when presented with something that sounds a little dubious, I'd like a clarification. There have been times in this site's past where that was not offensive to anybody.

I hope that answers your question.

You know that's not what he said.

I don't understand why you take issue with my asking a question but then feel permitted to tell me what I know, but I don't care, either, so there's that.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#114

Post by fauigerzigerk »

vaporstun wrote: post #92
cppsnob wrote: post #80

I was sad to see that Gruber couldn't step out of his Apple bubble to tackle this topic (or any topic, ever), so I will: Everyone who thinks "I should be developing for platform X" is thinking far too small. Take a look around you.. how many of the great companies were formed developing for a particular platform (unless it's their own)? Almost none. In 10 years, do you want to be the old and busted equivalent of the…

I disagree. I think companies ought to develop for every platform, companies ought to create a market, but developers ought to specialize generally. I don't think most developers are capable of being excellent at iOS development, web development, Android development, desktop development, etc. Certainly it's not advantageous to specialize only in a particular language (particularly a dying or dead one), but that's qui…

If, as a developer or startup founder, you see yourself as someone capable of creating interesting applications, specializing in one particular client side technology isn't going to get you very far. Apart from games, I don't see many interesting applications built on iOS alone.

But the title of this thread is about "career advice", so if taken to mean "what's going to make me employable in the coming years?", Gruber may have a point. There will be a large number of jobs at ad agencies making cookie cutter "branded experiences" on top of iOS (unless it's swept away by HTML5). It may be a good career choice for people who used to specialize in Flash.

Personally, I don't find it particularly appealing to say the least.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#115

Post by ido »

csomar wrote: post #108
cppsnob wrote: post #80

I was sad to see that Gruber couldn't step out of his Apple bubble to tackle this topic (or any topic, ever), so I will: Everyone who thinks "I should be developing for platform X" is thinking far too small. Take a look around you.. how many of the great companies were formed developing for a particular platform (unless it's their own)? Almost none. In 10 years, do you want to be the old and busted equivalent of the…

Modern Warfare 3 runs on the Microsoft (Windows/Xbox) and PS3 platforms. Like Angry Birds run on the Android and iPhone. Modern Warfare 3 didn't create their own platform, and no sane game studio will create their own platform. They'll follow what people buy. People bought xBox, okay, get that game on Xbox. People bought schelabiza to play games, okay, get that game on schelabiza. Modern Warfare 3 made much more mone…

    Modern Warfare 3 made much more money because it's 
    not Angry bird. Like GTA, Skyrim... these are games 
    that you pay $30-$50 for and not a buck.
And also cost $50-100m to develop.

Pretty sure angry birds didn't cost that much.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#116

Post by ZeroGravitas »

Kylekramer wrote: post #46

At the risk of being a cynical ass, let's not forget that this is basically Gruber playing the modern day equivalent of Levi Strauss: "Come to California/the App Store, you'll get amazingly rich! And while you're here, I am sure you would be interested in some clothing and dry goods/a $6,500 ad on the most influential Apple blog."

Or to put it in words that you might have heard repeatedly from the man himself, "You are not his customer, the people buying ads are his customer".

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#117

Post by robmcm »

hellotoby wrote: post #47

I feel this way too just not about Apple products, but about HTML. These surely are great days to be a web developer. HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript coupled with great browser support. It feels like there is so much that can be achieved!

Browser support is still a huge issue that people tend to gloss over. It's a problem any standards based environment will face. Native will always develope faster and be more consistent.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#118

Post by metachris »

sskates wrote: post #110
cpeterso wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Google make money from Android?

They get a 30% cut of any app purchase. They don't get any cut from 3rd party advertisers though.

I think I've read that they're distributing part of that 30% to their partners. But Google is really making money of _every_ new internet-connected device at one point or another via AdSense.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#119

Post by mmahemoff »

tzury wrote: post #102

I am trying to figure out why don't Gruber himself listen to his own advice and develop iPhone/iPad app already. I mean, writing good technical reviews and opinions about iOS is a very nice thing. But give advise to mass developers should be done from experience, rather than theory. As for the advice itself, it is right that in five years from now, mobile devices will be all over the place and today's sales volumes a…

Given that he's a writer, he is following his advice by focusing on Apple/iOS.
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