
37Signals and the Paradox of Success - dshah
http://davidpiccione.com/blog/37signals-and-the-paradox-of-success/
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davidw
They've done a lot of cool things, and are very talented. However, I think
that they "jumped the shark" when they charged $20... _twenty dollars_... for
a PDF version of their book (that isn't really a book... no ISBN), and had the
gall to tell Tim O'Reilly that in addition to everything else, they were going
to reinvent publishing:

<http://www.loudthinking.com/arc/2006_04.html>

His links are all broken, though... and I can't find the back and forth with
O'Reilly, but basically he come across as very presumptuous - something I'd be
willing to accept because he's _right_ about certain fields (web programming,
for instance), but something I'd look at with a more critical eye when he's
talking about something he really doesn't know 100%.

~~~
staticshock
that book is hardly part of their core business, and should be regarded as
such

~~~
davidw
Exactly - that's why it felt like such a money grab. They raked it in for a
few months, and then just let it go, free, on the web. How would you feel if
you'd paid $20 for a PDF that was then let loose for free? $20 for a nice
paperback might be ok, but a PDF?

(FYI, I didn't buy it, but it just didn't strike me as the most upstanding way
of doing business)

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omouse
What next new big thing? As has been said before, 37signals re-hashes old
ideas. Backpack, Basecamp and Highrise contain many of the same features and
barely contain new innovative things.

They need to do something radically different.

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dshah
This is way better than the original article. Takes a more detailed look at
what might be going on over there.

I think the key point (for me) was the notion that great developers like to
build new things.

