Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

cycle-gap.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 150 posts

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#131

Post by jonhendry »

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…

"The bottom 80% of apps split just 3% of the revenue."

I doubt it's any different with software sold at Best Buy or Target or Amazon. I doubt that it has ever been much different.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#132

Post by jonhendry »

msbarnett wrote: post #57
steele wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hmm, who are the influential developers in the iOS community?

Some names that spring to mind, off the top of my head and in no particular order: Loren Brichter, Marco Arment, Matt Gemmel, Matt Gallagher, and Steven Frank.

Wil Shipley

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#134

Post by billybob »

sixtofour wrote: post #129
enobrev wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be argued that your son could do quite well as a developer without a college degree and without having to be a star.

Not to disagree with you, but ... It astounds me that there are still jobs for developers. I'm not talking about SV stars, I mean the hundreds of thousands of programmers writing CRUD apps around the country. That is eminently moveable, and if the stereotypical code quality of the stereotypical foreign outsourcing shop is sub par, it's not because they don't have the same brains as we do, it's merely because a) they…

"Why will software be any different? It takes no resources except a brain, a computer and a connection. The whole world has the same quality of brains and computers as we, and their connection quality is often much better and cheaper than ours."

It takes one more resource: communication. Custom software development is quite different from motorcycles. If you need custom software development, and your business is going to depend on the result, outsourcing that effort to another country, especially across cultural and maybe language barriers, can be a disaster. You need developers who understand your business and the expectations of your customers.

In fact, take your argument and apply it to every other position in a company. Only a few of them, like sales, truly require an in-person presence, yet companies don't outsource most of them. Are they crazy, or are there good reasons for that?

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#135

Post by jonhendry »

SquareWheel wrote: post #125
sipefree wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, though based on the attitude of your comment I'm not sure if you'll take my point. Here in Dublin, at least, iPhones are becoming extremely popular, even with the losertechnicians of the world. Businessmen with no tech skills are replacing Blackberries with them, teenagers are flocking to get them, and there are even dodgy-looking iPhone accessory shops in bad neighbourhoods. Over here, since around the s…

Here is how I see it: The first wave are the tech enthusiasts, these people are not big app buyers but are interested in finding a good SSH tool, or an mail client that supports PGP. These were the main customers of the first iPhone. I'd say we've been in the second wave for the last couple years. These people are seeing TV the ads and are curious. Their friends buy iPhones, it makes sense for them too as well. They'…

"The first wave are the tech enthusiasts ... are interested in finding a good SSH tool, or an mail client that supports PGP. These were the main customers of the first iPhone."

Given that the first iPhone had no 3rd party apps apart from web apps, this seems highly unlikely.

It's more likely true of early Android phone buyers.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#136

Post by billybob »

robmcm wrote: post #117
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.

If you're shooting for the mobile market, writing a web app that works in the 5 most popular mobile browsers is a lot easier than rewriting your native app for each platform you want to target.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#138

Post by sixtofour »

billybob wrote: post #134
sixtofour wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to disagree with you, but ... It astounds me that there are still jobs for developers. I'm not talking about SV stars, I mean the hundreds of thousands of programmers writing CRUD apps around the country. That is eminently moveable, and if the stereotypical code quality of the stereotypical foreign outsourcing shop is sub par, it's not because they don't have the same brains as we do, it's merely because a) they…

"Why will software be any different? It takes no resources except a brain, a computer and a connection. The whole world has the same quality of brains and computers as we, and their connection quality is often much better and cheaper than ours." It takes one more resource: communication. Custom software development is quite different from motorcycles. If you need custom software development, and your business is goin…

"If you need custom software development, and your business is going to depend on the result, outsourcing that effort to another country, especially across cultural and maybe language barriers, can be a disaster."

For now. Yes, today it often is a disaster. It won't always be so. We didn't used to have an Indian software industry at all, for example. Now there is one. And one day it will be a no brainer to send most CRUD work there. In fact it won't be "sent" there, that function will exist there. And not only because India and other countries catch up on an industrial scale, but because businesses will demand it. Supply and demand has two sides, and demand will be filled, however slowly.

"yet companies don't outsource most of them. Are they crazy, or are there good reasons for that?"

They haven't got good at it yet, but they're trying and learning, and suppliers are getting better.

Large corporations only make one thing, money. Each one happens to do it by selling something different, but what they sell is incidental, what they're good at is making money. Part of making money is not spending money. If you're a bank, your software systems may be crucial to your business, but they're two steps away from the primary business of making money: 1) Make money, by 2) selling bank services, enabled by 3) software and other systems.

If you can get the same or better quality outside your building you'll do it if it's cheaper and good enough. If you have a communication problem between the software department and the investment department, one solution is to send both departments outside the building, and let them communicate with each other in a cheaper venue. If it's possible, it will be done.

I'm not saying don't go into software development. I'm saying that the world changes, and my 13 year old son's career is going to be much different than yours, inevitably. And your career is going to be much different in twenty years than it is today, not only because you'll have changed and grown, but because the world will have changed out from under you. And it gets faster every day.

Here's hoping that we're all rolling in dollars in twenty years. Or rupees.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#139

Post by SquareWheel »

jonhendry wrote: post #135
SquareWheel wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is how I see it: The first wave are the tech enthusiasts, these people are not big app buyers but are interested in finding a good SSH tool, or an mail client that supports PGP. These were the main customers of the first iPhone. I'd say we've been in the second wave for the last couple years. These people are seeing TV the ads and are curious. Their friends buy iPhones, it makes sense for them too as well. They'…

"The first wave are the tech enthusiasts ... are interested in finding a good SSH tool, or an mail client that supports PGP. These were the main customers of the first iPhone." Given that the first iPhone had no 3rd party apps apart from web apps, this seems highly unlikely. It's more likely true of early Android phone buyers.

Good catch, though there were definitely apps on the first iPhone. AppTapp/Installer was introduced around Christmas time if memory serves, and there were apps, utilities, and even a few games available.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#140

Post by cppsnob »

sovande wrote: post #104
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…

> Everyone who thinks "I should be developing for platform X" is thinking far too small. I started to develop for the web and the browser "platform" in the late '90 and it is still going strong. Maybe it is _you_ who are thinking too small? Back in the '90 we knew that the next big thing would be mobile, but it never happened. It was first when Apple introduced the iPhone, iOS SDK and the AppStore that we got a break…

The web is not a platform in the sense that we're talking about here. It's a set of open, free, non-proprietary specifications that anyone can implement on top of. iOS is not that. Just like Windows is not that.
Post reply on HN