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 greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area of the United States. He received his Bachelor of Science in computer science from Drexel University, and worked for Bare Bones Software from 2000 to 2002 and Joyent from 2005 to 2006.^[1] He produces Daring Fireball,^[2][3][4] a technology blog that has become his full-time job. Since 2013 Gruber works at Q Branch which he formed with his colleagues Brent Simmons and Dave Wiskus. He also hosts a podcast called The Talk Show. From May 2012-2014 the show was part of the Mule Radio Syndicate network. As of May 2014 The Talk Show has become independent and part of Daring Fireball.^[5]

Work

Daring Fireball

DaringFireball.net hosts Gruber's opinions in the form of a blog, and also some of Gruber's software. In April 2006, it 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, like Markdown.^[6][7] Gruber has described his Daring Fireball writing as a "Mac column in the form of a weblog".^[8] The site is written in the form of a tumblelog with occasional articles that discuss Apple products and issues in related consumer technology.

Common article subjects are the media's reflections on Apple (especially refuting of myths and misunderstandings), user interfaces (and the consistency thereof), software development and emerging Mac applications. Gruber also runs a linklog called The Linked List, posting brief commentary between the longer articles on the front page.

Revenue

The original Daring Fireball T-shirt

Since 2004, Gruber has solicited memberships,^[9] 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".^[10] 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.^[11]

Gruber's last account of his part-time Daring Fireball income called it a substantial side income, short of a full-time salary.^[7] 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.

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 January 2015, Gruber charges $9,250 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.^[13]

Speaking engagements

John Gruber has increasingly appeared as a conference speaker, starting in the US but going worldwide in recent years.^[14] His presentations focus on a subset of topics that he covers on Daring Fireball, mainly the intersection of Apple Inc., movies and the creative process.

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

References

External links

• Daring Fireball