
The 37signals Manifesto (original site from 1999) - revorad
http://37signals.com/manifesto
======
compay
Part of me deeply admires 37 Signals for their success, their people, and the
quality of the work they do. Yet another part of me detests how they've always
tried to sell themselves as some sort of movement, when in fact they're a
business trying to make a buck, just like any other. Not that there's anything
wrong with making a buck... let's just leave the "manifestos" to Marx and
Engels.

~~~
kevinholesh
They are just a business trying to make a buck, and sadly, that is what makes
them somewhat unique. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube are "successful" and get a
ton of press, but they've yet to make a profit. 37signals isn't afraid to
charge for a product they know is great.

37signals is really good at making you realize how these web companies might
not be the best business to get into. Could there be a bubble slowing building
that will eventually burst?

~~~
bumblebird
This is silly. There are thousands of websites that make money. The difference
is, they don't go on and on and on about it.

The unique part is 37Signals seems to concentrate mainly on PR. They're not
the biggest or best, they just shout the loudest.

------
dmoney
From number 33:

 _Mankind constantly analyzes radio waves from outer space in the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence. Since this analysis started, almost all of the
signal sources have been identified. 37 signals, however, remain unexplained._

I couldn't find a list of these signals, or a reference to the number 37. The
wikipedia entry for 37signals says it's a reference to signals discovered by
Paul Horowitz: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Horowitz>, but none of the
links have stuff about specific signals discovered. Anybody know where I could
find a list and/or descriptions of these signals?

------
alanthonyc
From #31:

 _Yahoo - Simple and still the best._

Times have changed.

------
hoffer
My favorite part from sec 03. "Most people can't even figure out how to
program their VCR"

~~~
jamesbritt
Is this even true? I know _some_ folks who have (or had) trouble programming a
VCR, but most didn't. So, aside from amusing anecdotal evidence, on what is
this claim based?

The book A Small Matter of Programming suggests that people adapt quite
readily to assorted complex systems (e.g. knitting patterns, baseball box
scores) given a proper context.

This is not to argue for complexity, but that people will raise to the
occasion if they think it worth it. Don't sell your audience short (but don't
make things harder than they need be).

------
petercooper
I still remember first seeing this when they put it up. Not many pages I
remember seeing for the first time like that, but they were onto something
pretty original at the time - clean designer and pithy aphorisms cut against
the "eye candy" grain of the late 90s. For example, Gabocorp's Flash site was
considered pretty awesome at the time.. archive:
<http://www.thefwa.com/flash10/gabo.html>

I'm pretty sure the site didn't _look_ as it's presented here though..

~~~
jasonfried
This is how the original 37signals site looked when we launched it in 1999:
[http://web.archive.org/web/19991127121651/http://www.37signa...](http://web.archive.org/web/19991127121651/http://www.37signals.com/index.html)

~~~
theli0nheart
Who did you end up hiring from your notice in the upper right hand corner?

