John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers • Hacker News Board

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#61

Post by gbog » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:21 AM UTC

guywithabike wrote: post #36

gbog wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is completely out of his mind. George Lucas, a Saint? Along with Saint Thomas, Saint John, etc.? Words have no meaning anymore... Even Confucius would be pissed of. (When asked what he would do first if given a prime minister position, he say he would rectify the words.)

Woah there, Nelly. Gruber said, "When George Lucas was still sane." Don't worry. Your words still have their meaning. All is well.

From the article: "George Lucas (when he was a saint)"

Did I miss something?

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#62

Post by freemarketteddy » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:25 AM UTC

steele wrote: post #14

puls wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a pundit, but he's really close with all of the influential developers in the community. He's more in tune with the Apple community than perhaps any one other person, and his track record of being right is unmatched in the last several years.

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

and also some notable young ones like Joe Hewitt,Jeff Verkoeyen,Peter Steinberger,Mugunth Kumar!

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#63

Post by wavephorm » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:27 AM UTC

This sounds like an advertisement to come panning for gold in 1854, years after the gold rush had begun. I think the iTunes app store story is practically over by this point. The app store is long-since saturated with useless gimmicky fart apps, and Apple's force grip on the development process will stifle innovation which is already spilling back into the web via HTML5 and WebGL.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#64

Post by ryanhuff » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:45 AM UTC

steve-howard wrote: post #55

ryanhuff wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there are barriers. A few that come to mind include the $99 per year Apple developer program fee, which is necessary to distribute apps, the Mac OS requirement, and the objective c hurdle. These may seem more like inconvenience barriers, but they do keep people away from the development pool.

I'm sure as hell not buying a Mac just to write for Apple's walled gardens. Inconvenience is an understatement.

While not ideal, some people have been able to run mac os on other operating systems using virtualization.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#65

Post by evgen » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:45 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #51

comedian wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that Android is the next Nokia. Large market share but like Nokia their marketshare is almost worthless since Android users dont spend as much money as iOS users. At least that's what everybody's saying.

A developer on HN submitted this a few months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2929612 His summary: Android=$4428.08, iOS=$5914 (over the same time period) So it is true that Android users spent less, but not by a huge amount.

Given the population numbers presented above it does imply that individual Android users spend considerably less. There is a huge pool of them so the income is similar, but paying customers are harder to find in that huge pool of users. This means that Android devs may encounter the "app store roulette" phenomenon in spades; those apps that have a viable customer acquisition strategy will do well and the long-tail of Android devs will gain far less.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#66

Post by comedian » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:49 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #60

comedian wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you truly believe this? Do I really have to explain the difference between a casino and the app store?

No, one is a place where you bet lots of money and hope you get a large enough return, but usually lose it all, and the other has free drinks.

No wonder you lost all your money. some people like you "hope" while successful people make things happen. Don't blame the system for your failures just because you're not good enough.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#67

Post by kellysutton » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:51 AM UTC

quadform wrote: post #43

JeremyBanks wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is good, but his execution and follow-through leaves something to be desired: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/12/responsible-open-so...

I've found that [Pandoc]( http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ ) has picked up the Markdown torch. It's got the most-needed additions using the probably least-controversial markup additions. Works great, is fast, well-documented, and is actively-maintained.

Where does it tell me how to write in Pandoc? Hard not to dismiss outright.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#68

Post by comedian » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 5:54 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #51

comedian wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that Android is the next Nokia. Large market share but like Nokia their marketshare is almost worthless since Android users dont spend as much money as iOS users. At least that's what everybody's saying.

A developer on HN submitted this a few months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2929612 His summary: Android=$4428.08, iOS=$5914 (over the same time period) So it is true that Android users spent less, but not by a huge amount.

That's 1 developer. doesn't prove your point.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#69

Post by mdonahoe » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 6:00 AM UTC

comedian wrote: post #66

StavrosK wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, one is a place where you bet lots of money and hope you get a large enough return, but usually lose it all, and the other has free drinks.

No wonder you lost all your money. some people like you "hope" while successful people make things happen. Don't blame the system for your failures just because you're not good enough.

Are you an actual comedian? Or is your username your only joke?

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#70

Post by georgieporgie » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 6:05 AM UTC

Everything he said can pretty much be said about the web, too. Along with that comes the fact that of these millions of news users, hardly anyone will want to pay a dime for anything.

That was the beautiful thing about developing software in the 90's: people were still willing to pay for stuff, you just had to figure out the (often insurmountable) distribution. Now, it seems like the only way to make a meaningful income is to insert yourself between layers of large business.