Hi, this is Numeric Citizen, and you are listening to the thoughts and tribulations of a compulsive creator podcast.

This is episode number four.

Did you know?

In this fourth episode, I want to share with you a few personal stories.

And the desire for that comes from listening a podcast episode this week from the Really Focused Stories podcast from Martin Feld.

And in this episode, it was an interview with John Gruber.

Probably know who this guy is.

He is a blogger, a writer about Apple.

He’s been doing that for quite some time.

In the early 2000s, he started a blog about Apple and is a really well-known, well-respected guy.

He has a lot of access contacts in the Apple community and within Apple itself.

And I remember meeting the guy actually in, I think it was in 2010.

I met the guy in Montreal, Canada.

I was going to a conference about iOS development and the conference was named Singleton.

And he was there to give a speech, to give a talk.

And I remember sitting at a table before the talk and he came to me.

And he asked me if he could see my watch that I was wearing at the time.

And I was kind of surprised because it was well before the Apple watch.

So I think John is really into watches in general.

And so he came to me, asked me to see what watch I was wearing.

And so I showed him the watch and he took a small piece of paper, the same piece of papers he used when he’s doing the interview at the WWDC conference when there’s the Apple executive.

So he notes a lot of things.

And so he took a few notes about my watch and then he said, thank you.

And then he left and returned to his table.

So that was my only time I met the guy.

I like, I like the guy in general.

I don’t always agree with what he’s writing or what he’s saying.

I don’t like his website visual design.

I think it’s way overdue for a remake, but I respect the guy.

And I think the interview was really interesting.

And the reason for that is because John was talking about himself.

He gave a peek about the guy behind his writing, behind his blog.

And it was, I thought it was very interesting to know more about the guy.

And I felt like more connected to the author.

So we talk about how he started blogging after, first he was a big reader and then he started the blog as a kind of hobby.

And then it became very important in his life.

And eventually he became a full-time blogger.

He talks about how he is perceiving his work, what he thinks about his influence in the Apple community.

I think he underestimates his influence in general, but that’s okay.

And so he goes about his work as a writer.

He gives his thought about podcasting and how it is different than writing.

And so it’s very interesting.

I thought Gruber was surprisingly generous about himself.

And by listening to this podcast, I had this idea of sharing a few stories about me.

Did you know that between 2009 and 2013, I was an indie iOS developer?

I stopped doing the development of my two apps at the time in 2013, when Apple released iOS 7.

And if you remember, iOS 7 was a major shift in the user interface and the visual language in general.

And I had to remake all the visual element of my two apps.

And I thought it was way too much effort for the return on the time investment.

And so I stopped doing that in 2013.

It was before Swift and SwiftUI, and at the time you were building the user interface by using Interface Builder.

I think I made about $5,000 by selling my two apps.

It was a time where the app store was much less crowded.

So I think it was a bit easier to make some money.

And I learned quite a few things in doing those two apps.

I learned to use Object CPC, the Interface Builder.

How you make up the app, how you publish the app on the app store.

And so I learned a lot.

And it was a kind of a creative journey by itself.

And I had a blog.

I had a blog while I was developing my two apps.

It was on the Google’s Blogger platform, which was pretty ugly.

And I wrote a lot about my writing experience, my learning experience as an iOS developer.

It wasn’t very popular, but it was kind of satisfying that there was readers, regular readers coming to my website because I was sharing how to do specific things in iOS and Xcode and stuff like that.

So I like, and this is where I personally start to write and share my experience online with the world.

And, but I stopped in 2013 and between 2013 and 2015, I didn’t have any blog.

I remember closing my blogger account.

I don’t even remember if I saved my content, but I don’t think so.

Between 2013 and 15, two years, I didn’t have anything to share online.

I decided to reopen a blog in 2015 on WordPress.

And this is from there, I’m still writing.

And this is, I would say my second start or of my creative journey as an independent writer and author.

That’s the way it went for me in those days.

And I wish I had a blog before that, before doing iOS development.

I wish I had a blog in the early days, in the early 2000 years, or at the end of the nineties, it was such a big thing, but I didn’t know it was such a thing.

I do remember surfing on the web and using browser and do stuff, but I don’t remember thinking, Oh, I could open my own website and do a few things and share a few things, but I kind of missed this opportunity.

I do remember using iWeb, which was an app made by Apple.

It was part of the iWork software bundle that Apple made at the time.

I did have a few things shared online, but I don’t consider that to be a blog itself.

So, and eventually Apple killed iWeb and then I really stopped doing anything like that.

So yeah, anyways, I wish I had some, did something back in the days and write for many, many, many years, but here am I today.

And I’m doing this podcast and I’m sharing things on my blogs today.

And I’m very happy to do that.

I do spend a lot of energy into this creative journey and as an independent writer, and I like it a lot.

So yeah, that’s, I wanted to share this with you guys today.

This concludes the episode number four.

If you follow me on Microblog, Mastodon, or Blue Sky, don’t be shy and share your thoughts or comments.

Thanks for listening and please, in this challenging world, in constant crisis and state of emergency, take care until the next episode.

Bye.