WFH today. Been up since just before 09:00 in time to log on to Teams and start working. Slept badly last night, dropping off around 03:30. Purely my fault – I had two forms of caffeine in the daytime yesterday (and the second was a Red Bull too!). Oh well, at least I’m WFH. I’m going to drink my Monster Energy and hopefully perk up. There is a weird thing I have (an ADHD thing I think) where if I get about 5-6 hours of sleep it actually doesn’t effect me too much (once I shake off the morning tiredness). In fact, I occasionally am more productive than when I get a good 8 hours. But it’s for one night only. If I have a second day of bad sleep I am then very unproductive.
Tuesday, 6 October 2026
New word learnt: conniption
John Gruber makes a lot of money
Every year or two I go to Daring Fireball's sponsorship page to check out how much John Gruber is charging companies to sponsor his blog for a week. The figure always astounds me.#
I remember a few years ago it was around $300,000 a year.1 Assuming he sells every sponsorship slot (which he seems to).#
Now he's charging $12,000 a week – $624,000 a year!#
Fair play to him – he's been consistently posting for years.#
But with the death of the web and the rise of social media I'm suprised that he can still make so much from an independent tech blog.#
People mentioned: John Gruber
Don't diss LOTR
Talking of John Gruber. I stopped following his blog (Daring Fireball) and listening to his podcast when he said he didn't like the the Lord of the Rings.1 He didn't just say he was "more of a Star Wars guy – he really said the Lord of the Rings was kinda crap."#
It's a bit of a petty reason, I know. And it's not the best trait to be done with someone just because they don't like something you like. But there's certain things that are just too sacred. The Lord of the Rings being one of them.#
After a few years I started following his blog again. Before quickly stopping as he was one of those American's who got obsessed with Donald Trump. I hate Trump and think he's the biggest threat to American democracy and world wide stability.2 I put him ahead of Putin even. Because at least Putin isn't in the house house (officially anyway – I think he has dirt on Trump). Whereas Trump is very much the fox in the hen house. And I admire Gruber for speaking out about him. But I follow his blog for tech news, not politics.#
People mentioned: John Gruber