Please

Please

When 'arrogant' isn't a dirty word

10 April 2006
Filed under Books, Business, Text, The Interweb

I’m not the only one who’s guilty of having accused the 37 Signals crew of arrogance. It’s the bog-standard criticism to level at successful, forthright, opinionated people, particularly in the world of the internet, where you’re unlikely to ever have to back your views up face-to-face. Like I said, I’ve made noises about my distaste for the rockstar ‘tude of the Signals, and I’m here to say, “I was wrong”.

I’m about halfway through Getting Real, and I’m enjoying it. That’s not to say that I agree with everything it recommends, and I certainly don’t think that the book’s success indicates the Death Of Publishing As We Know It, but it really is nice to be exposed to the full force of somebody’s convictions once in a while.

In a young and fast-developing industry such as ours, people tend to shy away from making absolute statements, fearing that rapid advances in thought and technology will make them look very stupid, very quickly. For that reason, there are very few real leaders; instead, we look to a bunch of talented, well-connected, young-ish explorers (1, 2, 3, 4 to capture a random sample from my feeds) for guidance and inspiration, and eventually some sort of consensus springs up around the key issues.

It’s refreshing in the light of all this that the Signals are prepared to dish up their bold strategies with confidence and flair. No philosophy on earth will be attractive if its creators don’t stand behind it, and obviously Jason Fried and his crew know this (the Australian Labor Party could take a leaf out of Fried’s book). They’ve developed a class-set of soundbites to go with their ideas, and although they border on hokey at times (“optimizing for happiness” is one of the most horrible bits of happy-clappy-corporo-babble I’ve ever heard), it’s an incredibly effective way of making sure their message is heard and digested. The Signals deserve some real credit for taking up front position.

Views from the Floor

Rothko says:

Jason Fried's keynote talk was one of my favorites at SXSWi. I definitely applaud many of his views on building Web apps. I'll probably get this book at some point, but I have to admit I'm a bit put-off by the $19 price tag. That seems a bit high for something that you download. You would think an item that cost nothing for them to print would make it less expensive than the typical paperback you buy on Amazon. Particularly since, if you prefer reading it off-screen, you have to print it yourself. $10 (about the cost of a downloadable CD on iTunes) seems a bit more reasonable. Or maybe I'm just cheap, which is a strong possibility.

Jason Fried says:

Thanks for for posting this. We're glad you gave us a chance by giving Getting Real a fair read.

As far as "optimizing for happiness" it's absolutely true and essential. It's the driving force behind Rails. Without the drive to create a "happy" atmosphere that you enjoy working in, Rails would never have seen the light of day.

Hokey, maybe. Honest, true, and essential, yes.

Jason Fried says:

"I'll probably get this book at some point, but I have to admit I'm a bit put-off by the $19 price tag. That seems a bit high for something that you download."

I'd look at it terms of value, not raw material cost. All downloadable software is "free" if you look at the raw material cost. What you have to look at is the value provided by the words, the software, the product, or whatever it is you're buying.


Ask yourself "what is it worth to me to learn something new that may help me do my job better and succeed at a higher level?" Put a higher value on your success and you'll see that $19 is worth it -- paper or no paper.

Virginia says:

Gosh, it's not the SENTIMENT of 'optimzing for happiness' that I'm objecting to - it's the glib language in which it's expressed. There's a fair bit that, to be honest, in 'Getting Real' - but while it's not something I respond to personally, I think it's pretty savvy marketing.

Rothko says:

"Put a higher value on your success and you'll see that $19 is worth it -- paper or no paper."

Wow! The key to my success is hidden in the pages of this book? In that case, I guess I should certainly buy it. Hell, I'd pay $100 for that!

Great pursuasional marketing language, Jason, but something I tend to respond to with irony.

If the cost of a book was solely about the value of the words, then hardbacks would cost the same as paperbacks. Or to use a more 'new media' example, I'm sure we'd agree that there's a lot of value in the words of Signal vs Noise, and reading that is free. We can use nice-sounding language to convince people whatever we want - that they will be smarter, happier, more attractive for buying a product - and they should therefore be willing to spend money on it. But I still feel a downloaded book shouldn't cost the same (or more than) its printed counterpart.

Virginia says:

I agree Rothko - I ponied up the $19 because it's important to me to stay abreast of these things, and because it wasn't a real stretch for me to do it, but $19 for something that has "printed exclusively for..." in the footer, thus reminding me every time I pick it up that I've agreed to a stricter-than-iTunes license for it, is a bit steep.

chatterbox says:

I'm going to have to agree with Rothko too. I've read the blog on occassion and listened to Jason speak at SXSWi and I always know that he is pushing 37Signals products right along with the philosophy. It's the philosophy pitch: we make our products the right way, therefore you should buy our products.

I've never been bothered by that. The whole point is to be happy and successful at what you do and in that context it makes perfect sense to promote whatever it is your selling so that you can, well, be happy and successful at what you do. That said, Jason's comments here are over the top.

"Honest, true, and essential" and "put a higher value on your success..."? A bit overzealous.

As for me, I read to much online already. I don't need to an eBook to ruin my eyes further. Let me know when it comes out in print. Marketing aside, I'd love to buy that.

And Jason, don't take this comment the wrong way -- I love what you guys are doing. I'd even pay for Basecamp if the time-tracking and billing was made available for the smaller accounts. :)

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