They're cooler because they so thoroughly document what they're doing, they have fun doing it, and they don't take shit from people in the process?
As a kid in high school, 37signals was one of the sites that changed how I thought about the Internet. I came across it, and suddenly here were some people who had pretty good taste in design, made some cool products for some cool people, who sounded like people when they talked. That's still how they come across. There are a shitton of people who think that the point of the Internet is fakery and deception and marketing—including half the people here—and I give props to the people who're willing to be professionals without handing in a part of their personality at the door.
The guys at 37signals like what they do, they're fairly successful, fairly famous, they do good work, and despite all that they sound like people that I know in person, they're willing to take risks and have unpopular opinions and sound stupid on occasion. Meanwhile, all respect to you, pclark, but ben says he thinks 37signals is cooler though they've both achieved wild success, and you come in here all determined to remind us that 37signals isn't unique and aren't cool and aren't innovative.
I guess what I'm saying is that the 37signals attitude of "We're people doing something" is the opposite of the common Hacker News attitude of Objectivist Manifest Destiny, and so they're cool for the clichéd reason that some people had to learn from them that it's okay to be yourself and not somebody else.
I have a lot of respect for jasonfried, I'd kill to sit down and have a coffee to chat shop with him.
37 Signals are a company with great marketing and an okay product. Kudos to them, etc.
But its not right [in my eyes] for people to aspire to that. Why would you aspire for that? Are you going to sleep well knowing your product is okay? Aren't most people on Hacker News technology people rather than marketing? Isn't that the core difference - we focus on building great things.
Mint "selling out" is better than sitting on your products enjoying the small profits for the rest of your life.
Do something awesome, life is too short to be mediocre.
As a kid in high school, 37signals was one of the sites that changed how I thought about the Internet. I came across it, and suddenly here were some people who had pretty good taste in design, made some cool products for some cool people, who sounded like people when they talked. That's still how they come across. There are a shitton of people who think that the point of the Internet is fakery and deception and marketing—including half the people here—and I give props to the people who're willing to be professionals without handing in a part of their personality at the door.
The guys at 37signals like what they do, they're fairly successful, fairly famous, they do good work, and despite all that they sound like people that I know in person, they're willing to take risks and have unpopular opinions and sound stupid on occasion. Meanwhile, all respect to you, pclark, but ben says he thinks 37signals is cooler though they've both achieved wild success, and you come in here all determined to remind us that 37signals isn't unique and aren't cool and aren't innovative.
I guess what I'm saying is that the 37signals attitude of "We're people doing something" is the opposite of the common Hacker News attitude of Objectivist Manifest Destiny, and so they're cool for the clichéd reason that some people had to learn from them that it's okay to be yourself and not somebody else.