Shawn Blanc has wrapped up his series of great software reviews, and now dives into the scariest of waters: those of the major minds in Mac journalism. And he goes first after the biggest shark in the ocean (or at least the one with the sharpest teeth), everyone's favorite Daring Fireball, John Gruber.The interview is first about interviews, and then goes on to cover Gruber's past (he worked with Bare Bones and Joyent before going on to write the blog full time). Gruber also gives out some great tips for writers, from things as practical as setting a goal the night before to guide your workday and always drinking coffee black, to ephemeral tips like how to become a better writer without actually writing anything (save about a dozen books' worth of message boards and blog posts).
Gruber also talks specifically about Daring Fireball, his favorite stuff on the site, and where he wants to take it, and how far. Definitely a great read -- as always, Shawn makes sure to hit on all the important notes and leave no stone unturned, and Gruber reveals lots of insight on what it's like to put his posts and the Linked List together every day.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-19-2008 @ 3:59PM
Scott said...
As someone who's only been reading DF for about a year, what I appreciated most in this interview were the links to Gruber's favorite pieces, which I've just read for the first time and absolutely loved.
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2-19-2008 @ 4:57PM
Steve said...
I'm a long-time payed DF reader, and this was a good interview. Of late, however, I'm really getting the sense that Gruber is getting lazy and falling for his own hype.
DF is almost exclusively linked lists now; they're generally interesting, but half the time they seem only to be linkbacks to posts that mention him. That kind of circle-jerking gets annoying.
We're also seeing far fewer of the meaty articles that were once the hallmark of the site. When he decided to do DF full time I figured we would get more, quality articles, but the opposite seems to have happened.
Between dedicated membership and the ad network I guess he's making a decent living off the site, which is great, it's just a shame the original content has suffered.
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2-19-2008 @ 8:46PM
John said...
That's a perceptive comment, Steve, and I'm glad you posted it because I'd been wondering if I was the only one who felt that way. I think I'm more dissatisfied with DF than you, actually; I recently removed Daring Fireball from my RSS list since it seemed like an increasing proportion of the content was either stuff I'd seen elsewhere (DF drinking game: down a shot every time an item end with "via Kottke") or related to Gruber's side obsessions -- the Kubrick stuff, his childish sports taunting, some inane Twitter chat he just had to share with the world, etc.
Maybe this is what you meant when you said that Gruber is "falling for his own hype," and maybe not, but I think what irks me the most about DF is the creeping feeling that John Gruber's favorite topic of conversation is, increasingly, John Gruber. (One manifestation of this is that, as you mentioned, a great deal of the links he posts are only there because the linked blogger happened to mention his name.)
This interview reinforces that feeling, although at first I thought that might just be due to Shawn Blanc's sycophantic line of questioning. But I clicked over to DF to see if Gruber had put a link up to the interview, and indeed he had, with this note:
"Thoughtful interview with yours truly, mostly about the thinking behind Daring Fireball and writing in general. I enjoyed the interview, and I enjoyed re-reading it just now."
Oof. The self-love is all a bit much. I don't begrudge Gruber any of his success, and I wish him much more, because he has been a talented, much-needed voice of reason in the Mac world. I just don't enjoy the persona that comes through on DF as much as I used to. The site seems more self-satisfied and less relevant than it was just a short time ago.
2-20-2008 @ 6:54AM
Ed said...
+1 for me. You guys put it better than I could, but I wholeheartedly agree. Shame for the readers, but I wish the guy luck anyway.