For the record, we don't believe our way is the only way and we've never made that suggestion. There are a lot of ways to do a lot of things. There are lots of ways to be successful. We just share our way.
No one is shoving anything down anyones throat. There's a lot of information available. A lot of different points of view. It's entirely your choice what you pay attention to, who you listen to, and what you care about.
Absorb a lot from a lot of sources. Take whatever value you find and leave the rest behind. Your mileage will vary. We hope everyone finds their own success.
The title of your book is "getting real." Doesn't that directly imply someone else is not "real?" 37Signals has very strong opinions about how things ought to be done, and evangelizes them. So far it's worked brilliantly. If you didn't think that your way was a huge improvement, why would you have bothered to put all the work into Rails, Basecamp, etc?
Don't back down just because people (myself included) rag on you sometimes!
I'm really getting sick of not only the hype surrounding 37 Signals but the "religion" that they shove down our throats and the media just gobbles up.
Some people need to work more than 4 days per week, actually need to hire more people and actually need to add features to their software (and can't say "no" to everything)
We don't all have cult like religious followers. It's like using Apple as a guide for starting a PC business. Not exactly a formula you can apply to everything.
37s is not to blame. They are shoving anything anywhere (as Jason says on this thread). Nor are they saying that their "system" works for all businesses/problems. They're just delivering a very compelling message to a hungry audience. It's like the 4 Hour Work Week... Or Christianity (all you have to do is ASK for forgiveness... and viola!).
It's a great story, but not a very repeatable one.
1) Step 1 - Build an enormous and rabidly loyal audience with a great blog (SvN) and a great framework (RoR). JoelonSoftware proved that you can do this without the framework. :-)
2) Release products that serves the core of that audience. Watch in amazement as profits pour in. Customer acquisition costs are near zero. No marketing required other than public speaking engagements (which often net a speaking fee) and the occasional blog post.
No doubt that these guys are really talented... But I don't think they owe their success to working less or giving their customers less. They owe it to an evangelical following and (to a much lesser degree) building an app that does a solid job of serving that audience.
I agree that my language was a little extreme as nobody is forcing anything down my throat. I also agree with your statements about their success not being very "repeatable".
I don't look to superstars or billionaires to find the secrets to success, usually their rise to stardom is very atypical and contains a good deal of luck (along with a lot of concrete factors like determination, skills and timing).
I just tend to get annoyed with the self-righteous tone of many of their articles, which is then amplified by the blogosphere (probably more the source of my annoyance than anything 37 posts themselves).
I apologize for the troll like post, now back to the NBA finals (go Celtics!)
This is how they're building their company. You build yours your way. I'm immensely interested in both stories; interested enough not to ask either of you to change your writing styles to avoid offending me.
It is fun to see both camps fight it out and thereby share their combined knowledge and experience with us. Without the battle, I don't think they'll put in so much effort to educate us.
Though you do have a completely valid point, it's also true that a lot of people should take some lessons from their example.
Until people realize that working a lot of overtime tends to generate a lot of technical debt, they'll keep doing it. And even though a 4-day week might be a bit short, you have to admit that it's working.
Working for them, a 4 day work week won't pay my two mortgages and won't put food on the table for my two daughters. Some day I hope to be there too, but it's advice I can't take now.
They have income coming in every month that is residual. As long as they have that income that isn't based upon how much they work then it works well. I believe the point is to get yourself into that position.
I don't always agree with them, and they can certainly get irritating, but they've built a business whose services I both use and enjoy. Their philosophy might not be for everyone, but it has served many well. In other words, you don't have to agree with them (and I don't think they expect you to), but their approach and story is a valuable one for most of us.
As an employee in a state tech position, I find 37Signals' philosophy refreshing. I can't speak to its appeal as a business leader, but as someone who wants to just do the work that gets the results without the fluff and exhaustion, it sounds great.
Or give your customers more and succeed like Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Apple, IBM, etc, etc, etc, and so on throughout the whole of the NYSE and Nasdaq listings.
No one is shoving anything down anyones throat. There's a lot of information available. A lot of different points of view. It's entirely your choice what you pay attention to, who you listen to, and what you care about.
Absorb a lot from a lot of sources. Take whatever value you find and leave the rest behind. Your mileage will vary. We hope everyone finds their own success.