The Talk Show With John Gruber 440: ‘Flush a Radar’, With Brent Simmons
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Feb 1, 2026 Brent Simmons, veteran macOS/iOS developer and creator of NetNewsWire, chats about his Audible tenure, retiring back to indie work, and shipping NetNewsWire 7. He talks macOS 26 Tahoe visual changes, adopting Liquid Glass and Swift updates, and the choices behind making NetNewsWire Tahoe-only. Short, techy stories about code hygiene, UI decisions, and indie developer pushback.
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From Solo Dev To Massive Team
- Brent described moving from tiny teams to Audible's large iOS team and the cultural learning it required.
- He contrasted being the sole NetNewsWire developer with working on a team of dozens at Audible.
Account For Promotion Incentives
- Recognize promotions as primary incentives in large companies and factor them into project dynamics.
- Ask who benefits career-wise from a change to predict churn and motivations.
Be Opinionated To Reduce User Anxiety
- Limit features and preferences to reduce user anxiety and maintenance cost.
- Be opinionated in design to keep the product focused and less stressful for users.