Some cool stories about technology, scaling, performance, building products, improving products, new features, cool hacks, etc would be what I would find interesting.
It just seems that a lot of the "business advice" is a bit nothingy - Not just 37signals, but Seth Godin, etc. Often it seems like having a "life coach" who used to work at Hallmark telling you things you already know in a slightly sermonistic way.
We share this stuff on our blog almost every day. Keep an eye on Signal vs. Noise (http://www.37signals.com/svn) and the Product Blog (http://productblog.37signals.com) and you'll see all sorts of posts about building products, performance, improving, new features, tips and tricks, case studies, etc.
Just an extra data point for you, but I would find some sort of chronological history of 37signals, the development process behind each product, the whole way things have come together, with useful tips and insights interspersed, an absolute must buy.
As much as I like the general advice, I think a slightly more narrative piece would be an excellent read.
Is the book being pitched as a 'business' book, an alternative way to tackle business? Or is this another tech-related book? I suspect the former as the article makes numerous hints to a popular rather than technical audience.
Yes, it bugs me a lot; they are writing about their experiences of creating successful products, even though they became popular because of Rails, and they have kept themselves in the limelight by writing about why they are successful.
Don't get me wrong, some of their products are great — but without rails, they'd just be another startup.
That's not true at all. They were standing out from the crowd going back into the late 90s. http://www.37signals.com/manifesto.html They did client work, wrote books on web design, and did other stuff for years before becoming a product company with Basecamp, Rails, and everything else.
I'd love to get some real data on the who, what, when, and how much, although I'm not sure they'd want to share that. Without that, it's easy to speculate, but hard to say anything with any degree of certainty.
