#227: Pivotal

Sometimes shipping an update or launching a product can feel like you’ve arrived somewhere, but more often it feels like you’ve reached a false summit, with just as much work ahead of you as behind. This episode talks through those kinds of feelings. The View from Loughrigg Fell Loughrigg Fell Check the Weather Watch on YouTube

I’m joined by Rafa Conde to talk about our experiences designing apps for the iPhone Duo. Together we have worked on Pedometer++, Widgetsmith and Check the Weather. Rafa Conde Rivian for Duo Check the Weather Kyber Pedometer++ Widgetsmith Watch on YouTube

Gone are the days of map-and-compass development, now if we can imagine it and see a line of sight to it we can build things nearly instantly. Which totally changes the cognitive and structural tradeoffs we need to make in our development process…and how we take care of ourselves in that. Watch on YouTube

I walk through the history of Apple developer platforms over my history as an app developer and grade them, then think a bit about what has made them worthwhile. Watch on YouTube

I’m bringing Developing Perspective back. This first episode wrestles through why being an indie app developer right now feels so “pivotal”, in both senses of the word. There’s the constant, week-by-week change in our tools and workflows, and there’s the bigger structural shift in what it even means to “make” apps. Watch on YouTube

Under the Radar RSS Feed Overcast Link iTunes Link PocketCasts Subscribe Link I am delighted to announce that today I am launching a new development related podcast with Marco Arment. It is called Under the Radar and starts today on the fine Relay FM Network. I have been doing Developing Perspective since July 13, 2011 (roughly 4.5 years). During that time I have chronicled the rises and falls of being an independent developer in the App Store. I am immensely proud of Developing Perspective and glad that I have it to refer to later on as I look back on my career. The time has come now to embark on a new adventure in podcasting. Back in late 2010 a new podcast was started called Build & Analyze with Marco Arment and Dan Benjamin. I hadn’t really heard of either of them before but I immediately latched onto it. Marco’s experiences and perspectives in being a developer were both relevant to my work and engaging to hear. For the entire run of Build & Analyze you’d always find me in the chatroom listening live, suggesting titles. In many ways it was the show that most motivated me to start podcasting. To create a venue for sharing my experiences and hard learned lessons. I was very sad when it finally wrapped up its 108 episode run. All that makes the prospect of starting a new development podcast with Marco a great joy. If you liked listening to Developing Perspective I’d really encourage you to subscribe to Under the Radar. It is in many ways the spiritual successor to Developing Perspective and Build & Analyze. A venue for us both to discuss and examine what being a developer means today — the challenges we face, the opportunities we see, the lessons we learn. Oh, and it’s never longer than 30 minutes. So let’s get Started

I tend to think of my app business in terms of revenue per day. Breaking it down to that level helps me keep a close eye on it and know how well or poorly I’m doing. Today I walk through the reasoning for this as well as do a thought experiment of what the numbers might look like for a new business.

Some thoughts on the implications of having to take an unplanned absence from your work when you are self-employed. There are a lot of benefits of being independent that manifest themselves in a situation like this but also a few things to be careful of and plan for.

An overview of what to expect this summer: the beta schedule, timing for release, the importance of RADARS, my growing interest in Swift and an encouragement for everyone to build something new this summer. Will Hains’ iOS Beta History

First Impressions from WWDC 2015. These are my initial reactions right after the Keynote, I’ll probably do another episode later in the week which has more considered reactions.