So there you have it: my arrogance in a nutshell is 25% refusing to pretend I haven’t done good work, 25% not wanting to speak for other people, 25% me joking around, and 25% other people projecting their own arrogance onto me. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to get back to helping friends and donating my time to writing software for charity. I’m sorry if that sounds arrogant.

Mike Lee is an asshole. He’s also one of the nicest guys in the industry. Which version would you rather spend your emotional energy on?

Strangely, I’m in nearly every shot. I’m considering a restraining order.

I went out drinking with Brent Simmons. Everything after that is kind of a blur.

About a year ago, I happened to be flying in to San Jose on business. As the plane touched down, I did what I always do: take my iPhone out of airplane mode. At some point over eastern California, my friend Alex sent an email to myself and Brent Simmons; he had noticed we were both going to be in the area and suggested we meet up. To be honest, I felt terrible that night. I just wanted to go to my hotel and get some sleep.

I had met Brent once before at Ignite Denver, but only briefly. The opportunity to buy the developer of one of my favorite applications a drink was too good to ignore. So I sucked it up and went out.

It just so happened that Brent was in town for 360|iDev, an event organized by a guy named John Wilker, who I sort of knew in passing and — again, by sheer coincidence — had just become my neighbor. Nobody could have said it better than Wilker himself when he walked up to me outside of the eBay Town Hall that night. “Dave? What the hell are you doing here?”

When Brent and I went out, we were joined by Dan Burcaw and Joe Pezzillo — iPhone developers and friends of Brent’s from, of all places, Denver. Jay and I had just launched Coathangr, the social network for fashion, and I asked Dan how much it would cost us to build an iPhone app for it.

He told me that the conversation couldn’t even start for less than twenty grand, and that we’d be better off doing it ourselves. So we did. And we fell in love with iPhone development. And a year later, Dan’s company acquired us. I guess he was right.

Of course, I’m leaving out an entire year’s worth of blood, sweat, education, experience, and perhaps most importantly, failure. I’ll save those for later posts. So part of it was luck, part of it was the truly awesome iPhone developer community, and a lot of it is owed to my generous and patient mentors. But if I had to trace it back to a single decision that changed everything, it would be going to grab that drink.

The lesson here is that when Brent Simmons invites you out, you say yes.

Go here and use the code april1

This is an excellent deal. If you haven’t registered already, do so today.

And yeah, it’s been a weird, crazy year. I look at the list of my fellow speakers and I feel both honored and humbled.

I REALLY HOPE THERE ISN’T ANY NEED FOR FINE PRINT BECAUSE I JUST WANT TO GIVE SOME STUFF AWAY AND HAVE NOBODY RAISE A BIG LEGAL FUSS ABOUT IT ARE WE AGREED THIS IS A GOOD IDEA AND THE LAWYERS DON’T NEED TO GET INVOLVED, AM I RIGHT?

My personal dream feature is something like fake follow — where the other person sees you as a follower but you don’t actually see their posts in your timeline — but with a twist: I do want to any post from that person that someone has marked as a favorite.

When I say oversharing, I don’t mean accidentally telling the world about the salacious details of your skeezy one-night stand. That’s actually kind of amusing.

Update: I must be tired from all of that CSS. The link now goes to the right place.

Now I just need to start charging for software.

Never make excuses about being too busy, not having enough time, etc. People who are awesome make time for what’s important to them.

And

If the people you hang out with are always complaining about other people, chances are they probably complain about you too.

(Via Michael Margolis)

For those who don’t know, Coathangr is a social network for fashion. Check out what other people are wearing, share pictures of your own outfits, and discuss the latest styles.

Don’t tweet about your body. Things like “Man, my bra is so tight today” or “I can’t believe I forgot to wear underwear” make you seem desperate and needy.