Seems like having fun at work is the whole point. We all are experiencing the blurring of work and home life. The Skinny guys have figured out that you build projects out of a personal need and enjoyment. Some stick; some don't. Apparently, t-shirts designed by their community sticks.
The video of their talk is decent enough quality. What they have to say about being part of their community is a nice take-away. I also liked how they treated those who try to game their system: They treat the gaming almost like a security audit. They learn from their community the system's weaknesses. Seems like an appropriate reaction rather than knee-jerking from one 'solution' to another; e.g., Digg.
This was a pretty interesting watch, though I sorta had it going in the background while I did other stuff. The "we-wont-do-it-unless-we-are-having-totally-awesome-fun-100%-of-the-time" approach clearly needs to be taken with a grain (or pound) of salt, but I like to hope that it speaks to the power of being real excited about your products given they have definitely done a few things right with threadless.
The stress the motto "Your project is not good enough".
The video of their talk is decent enough quality. What they have to say about being part of their community is a nice take-away. I also liked how they treated those who try to game their system: They treat the gaming almost like a security audit. They learn from their community the system's weaknesses. Seems like an appropriate reaction rather than knee-jerking from one 'solution' to another; e.g., Digg.