John Gruber

John Gruber (born 1973) is a writer, blog publisher, UI designer, and the inventor of the Markdown publishing format. Gruber is from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area. He received his Bachelor of Science in computer science from Drexel University, then worked for Bare Bones Software (2000-02) and Joyent (2005-06).^[1] Since 2002, he has written and produced Daring Fireball,^[2][3][4] a technology-focused blog. He hosts a related podcast called The Talk Show. In 2013, Gruber, Brent Simmons, and Dave Wiskus founded Q Branch, to develop the Vesper notes app.^[5]

Daring Fireball

Gruber has described his Daring Fireball writing as a "Mac column in the form of a weblog".^[6] The site is written in the form of a tumblelog with occasional articles that discuss Apple products and issues in related consumer technology. Gruber often writes about user interfaces, software development, Mac applications, and other media's coverage of Apple. Gruber also runs a linklog called The Linked List, posting brief commentary between the longer articles on the front page.

The original Daring Fireball T-shirt

In 2004, Gruber began selling memberships,^[7] where readers donate an amount of money annually to show support for Gruber's writing and also to gain access to other perks. The perks included more detailed feeds, but Gruber has downplayed the importance of the extra features, comparing them to "PBS tote bags".^[8] Daring Fireball logo T-shirts are also sold, which include a membership and a discount on further T-shirts. All of the site's content is freely available, and in August 2007, Gruber made all of the site's feeds freely available as well, and each week the feed features a sponsor.^[9]

Gruber's last account of his part-time Daring Fireball income called it a substantial side income, short of a full-time salary.^[10] For most of the time when Daring Fireball was a part-time project, Gruber worked as an independent web designer; between late 2005 and April 2006, Gruber's main job was at Joyent where he helped with the TextDrive acquisition.

In April 2006, producing Daring Fireball became Gruber's full-time job, funded by advertisement revenue, membership fees, t-shirt sales, and donations from software projects also hosted on the site, such as Markdown.^[11][10] Since 2006,^[12] the site displays advertisements from The Deck, an advertising network serving sites like A List Apart and 37signals in addition to Daring Fireball. In addition to this, many Amazon.com links carry Daring Fireball's referral ID, and the site's preferences include a choice of local Amazon store.

As of October 2015, Gruber charges US$9,750^[13] per week for RSS feed sponsorship which includes a "promotional item during the week" and a "linked list item" to the sponsor at the end of the week.^[14]

In addition to his posts about Apple products, Gruber also uses Daring Fireball as a political blog to champion the Democratic party and liberal causes and to attack Republicans, in particular President-elect Donald Trump. Controversially, Gruber characterized all 62 million Trump voters as "ignoramuses, bigots, and/or fools".^[15]

The Talk Show

Started in 2007 and originally co-hosted with Dan Benjamin, the podcast featured conversations and commentary on trends (mainly in tech) between the two hosts. That format persisted as the show helped establish the 5by5 Studios network on which it resided from 2010 to 2012.^[16] After moving the podcast to Mule Radio Syndicate network in May 2012, Gruber changed the format, becoming the sole host of the show with alternating guests each episode. Guests are mainly programmers, designers, analysts and journalists. Some recurring guests include John Moltz, Marco Arment, Merlin Mann, Craig Hockenberry, John Siracusa, Rene Ritchie, Guy English, MG Siegler, Ben Thompson, Joanna Stern, Brent Simmons, Om Malik, Jason Snell, Christa Mrgan, Dave Wiskus, Matthew Panzarino, and Serenity Caldwell. Apple Inc. SVP of worldwide marketing Philip Schiller appeared as a guest on the live episode of The Talk Show during 2015 WWDC in San Francisco. Apple senior vice presidents Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi appeared as guests on a recorded episode published February 12, 2016.^[17] Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi also appeared on the live episode of The Talk Show during 2016 WWDC.^[18]

As of May 2014, The Talk Show has become independent and part of Daring Fireball.^[19]

Speaking engagements

John Gruber has increasingly appeared as a conference speaker, starting in the United States but going worldwide in recent years.^[20] His presentations focus on a subset of topics that he covers on Daring Fireball, mainly the intersection of Apple, movies, and the creative process.

• Oct 2006 — C4[0], Chicago: "the HIG is dead"^[21]
• Mar 2007 — SXSW, Austin: "Design Aesthetic of the Indie Developer"^[22]
• Mar 2008 — SXSW, Austin: "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Great Design Hurts"^[22]
• Jan 2009 — Macworld Expo, San Francisco: "The Auteur theory of design"^[23]
• Mar 2009 — SXSW, Austin: "149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility!"^[22]
• Feb 2010 — Macworld Expo, San Francisco: "Apple’s Top 10 Issues"^[24]
• Mar 2010 — SXSW, Austin: "Online Advertising: Losing the Race to the Bottom"^[22]
• Sep 2010 — dConstruct, Brighton (United Kingdom): "The Auteur theory of design"^[25]
• Jan 2011 — Macworld Expo, San Francisco: "Gruber, Engst, Moren on the future of the Mac"^[26]
• Feb 2011 — webstock, Wellington (New Zealand): "The Gap Theory of UI Design"^[27]
• Mar 2011 — SXSW, Austin: "15 Slides, Three Writers, Three Ways — One Hour"^[22]
• Oct 2011 — Çingleton, Montréal: "Keynote"^[28]
• Sep 2012 — Guest on Charlie Rose^[29]
• Jan 2013 — Macworld/iWorld, San Francisco: "iCloud, App Stores, and Other Things To Fear: Has Apple Forgotten Power Users?"^[30][31]
• Feb 2013 — webstock, Wellington (New Zealand): "In praise of Pac-Man: lessons all designers can learn from the perfect video game"^[27]
• Oct 2014 — XOXO^[32]
• Oct 2014 — Çingleton 4, Montréal^[33]
• Jun 2015 — Layers, San Francisco: "In Conversation with Susan Kare"

References