Daniel Gauthier

While I am definitely a “software developer” on my LinkedIn page, I don’t think that really captures how I think of my work. I’m a designer and a writer and a teacher and, heck, even a marketer on some days, and one of my most strongly-held beliefs about our industry is that all this stuff is way more important than we give it credit for.

Today, I thought I’d tell the more detailed story of how Oh Bother, through many strange and unexpected twists and turns, came to receive the attention it did.

Now that my little app is actually out in the world, trying to make a name for itself, I thought it'd be fun to reflect on the whole process, and on what comes next.

Well, my indie journey took a bit of a turn right around the start of April, when I got a pretty silly idea stuck in my head.

If you're building an app on your own, all of the design and development complexity falls squarely on your shoulders. If you can write code and make your UI look "nice," that's a start, but it certainly doesn't get you to the finish line — and with each iOS update, the race seems to get a little bit longer.

I'll be honest: I didn't accomplish a whole lot this week. As of right now, COVID-19 appears to be more or less causing the world to fall apart in a way that most of us have never really seen. It's, uh...not great!