John Sonmez

Author of Soft Skills. I help software developers build careers they love. Get a free YouTube channel plan for developers 👇

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

If you're a developer, YouTube isn't an ad business. It's how people find out you exist. Free channel plan:
https://t.co/8LqjkfG1Yt

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

At about 100-150K subs, my old Simple Programmer channel made $2-3K a month in AdSense.

I paid my video editor about the same. Ad money: basically zero.

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

The money came from people who watched, then bought my books, joined my email list and took my courses.

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

I was the most shy, introverted person you could meet.

I trained myself to talk on camera and on stage anyway. It's a skill. If I could learn it, you can learn it.
https://t.co/iOMc3A3BHv

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

Most developers market themselves like a lawyer who says he does criminal, divorce and tax law.

Nobody hires that guy for a murder case.

Pick one thing to be known for and make content about it.
https://t.co/PQruBrXTjA

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

You don't need a lot of subscribers for a dev YouTube channel to pay off.

A couple hundred views on the right video can land you a consulting gig. The hiring manager searching for your tech doesn't care about your sub count.
https://t.co/2Q50bXlQrX

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

If you go with YouTube, here's a free tool that plans your channel:
https://t.co/ZHoMcjHW1f

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

AI can write code. I've built apps in a couple of days that would have taken me 3 months.

If I were a developer worried about my job, here's what I'd do:

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

2. Build a name. A blog, a podcast or a YouTube channel in one specific niche. Hardly any developers do this, so a little effort puts you near the top 1%.

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

I've gotten job offers from my blog and YouTube channel where I didn't have to interview at all.

Guess how the salary negotiation went when they came to me.
https://t.co/304ksw5d3B

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

How many developers do you know personally who have a YouTube channel?

Almost none.

That's the opportunity. A recruiter Googles you, finds 20 videos on the stack they're hiring for, and you're not one of 200 resumes anymore.
https://t.co/9cr0YOU9xs

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@hasibullahtayeb Open the vlog with one thing you're building that day and the problem it solves. Then use your move to Afghanistan as context. Give people a project they can follow across videos. When are you publishing it?

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@SrinivasValekar Pick one beginner drone project and make a short series showing what you actually build and test. You'll have a clearer audience than covering robotics broadly. What are you building first?

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@Westar8 Make the next Hermes video solve one beginner problem, like connecting an MCP tool and showing it working. Keep the same audience for the first batch. What will a viewer be able to do after video two?

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@brianmmdev Pick one game and a series you can repeat, so people have a reason to watch the next video. Your dev channel's audience may not carry over. What game are you starting with?

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@JoshWalkos LOL… everyone disagreeing with you while stuffing their fat faces with Big Macs.

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@unclebobmartin I literally run everything through my openclaw agents. I don’t pay anything or transfer any money myself. In Greece, all flights are booked by agents, all hotels, rental cars, everything.

[DHH @dhh]

It was almost impossible for a programmer who wrote all their code by hand to divorce their ego from the output. Now agents are delivering what decades of agile admonishing about “collective ownership” never could. What a gift!

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@Ivyy_heree And then instead of you saying what you said, you could have said “it hurts me when I feel like you don’t care about how I feel and it feels like you expect sex from me, and if I don’t do it, then I’ll be treated differently. Can we talk about that?”

[John Sonmez @simpleprogrammr]

@Ivyy_heree The problem is two adults, both not knowing how to communicate respectfully and vulnerably. He should not have said “it’s always something with you.” He should have said: “I feel rejected by you often. I don’t want to feel this way and I’m not blaming you, but can we talk.”