diff ~/p/julia-evans ~/p/shane-parrish

Julia Evans vs Shane Parrish

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Julia Evans

Montreal developer behind Wizard Zines and the jvns.ca blog on computing fundamentals

@b0rk Canada

Shane Parrish

Founder of Farnam Street; author of Clear Thinking and The Great Mental Models

@ShaneParrish Canada

Julia Evans vs Shane Parrish at a glance

Both Julia Evans and Shane Parrish are bootstrapped. They overlap in Educators & Course Creators and Creators & Writers. Julia is based in Montreal, Canada, Shane in Ottawa, Canada. Julia Evans has 5 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Shane Parrish's 5. Julia self-reports $101,558 in 2018 (zine business); Shane hasn't shared a revenue figure publicly. On X, Julia has about 192K followers and Shane about 569K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: Julia Evans: Montreal, Canada; Shane Parrish: Ottawa, Canada
Started: Julia Evans: 2018 (8 yrs indie); Shane Parrish: —
Revenue (self-reported): Julia Evans: $101,558 in 2018 (zine business)self-reported, as of 2018 · source for Julia Evans's revenue; Shane Parrish: Not public
Products listed: Julia Evans: 5; Shane Parrish: 5
Product status: Julia Evans: 5 active; Shane Parrish: 5 active
X followers: Julia Evans: 192K; Shane Parrish: 569K
Categories: Julia Evans: Educators & Course Creators Creators & Writers Developer Tools; Shane Parrish: Creators & Writers Educators & Course Creators
Style: Julia Evans: solobootstrapped; Shane Parrish: bootstrapped
Courses & resources: Julia Evans: 10; Shane Parrish: 4

Revenue figures are self-reported by each maker and not audited; dates and scope differ. Highlighted categories are shared by both.

Tech stack

No tools in common in their publicly listed stacks. See the indie maker tech stack.

Julia Evans

No stack shared publicly.

Shane Parrish

No stack shared publicly.

How they build

Julia Evans

Focus on fundamentals that will still be true in ten years.
It is normal not to know something basic yet; avoid gatekeeping.
Explain only the most important ideas, in short pages and plain language.
Deeply understanding the systems underneath you makes hard problems solvable.
Teaching computer things directly to developers can be a real business without ads or sponsors.

Shane Parrish

Master the best of what other people have already figured out.
Build a latticework of mental models from many disciplines.
Good decisions come from controlling your defaults, not from intelligence alone.
Earn trust by never selling editorial influence to sponsors.

Learn from Julia and Shane

Julia Evans

[book] The Secret Rules of the Terminal
[book] How Git Works
[book] How DNS Works
[book] Bite Size zine pack · $38
[book] HTTP: Learn your browser's language!
[book] Your Linux Toolbox · $29.95
+4 more on Julia's profile

Shane Parrish

[book] Clear Thinking
[book] The Great Mental Models (Volumes 1–4)
[newsletter] Brain Food
[podcast] The Knowledge Project

Julia Evans vs Shane Parrish FAQ

Who makes more money, Julia Evans or Shane Parrish?

Julia Evans self-reports $101,558 in 2018 (zine business). Shane Parrish's revenue is not public, so a direct comparison isn't possible.

Who has built more products, Julia Evans or Shane Parrish?

Julia Evans has 5 products listed (including Wizard Zines, Mess With DNS and Memory Spy); Shane Parrish has 5 products listed (including Farnam Street, Brain Food and FS Membership).