Why I Love 37signals
I don’t own any of 37signal‘s products. As a matter of fact, using Basecamp annoys the heck out of me. But I love 37signals and everything they do and stand for.
Why? They’re not afraid to say what they think, no matter who might get offended. A week ago, I posted an article called Teaching Graphic Designers About The Web. Personally I thought it was a great article and it seem to do well traffic-wise.
However a small demographic of my readers decided to completely ignore the 700+ word article and instead focus on one word – gay. Yes, I called the Droid gay. And no, I don’t regret it.
Why People Hate 37signals
I’ve never heard anyone say that they hated 37signals because their products stunk. Or their customer services. Or even their prices. Instead, people choose to hate 37signals because they think their “pompous” and “arrogant”. Apparently being truthful, speaking your mind and injecting humor into your writings now classifies as “arrogant” in the world today. Pity.
I’ve listened to every one of their podcasts and read all of their books. I have never seen one thing that was arrogant or pompous. I think their writing is hilarious and I actually enjoy reading their business books instead of falling asleep like I have with so many other’s books.
Why is it that in this day and age, we have to be so stuck up as to “punish” those that think outside of the box? You don’t want a full-time job? The government punishes you by making you pay double taxes. You want to be an artist? You get laughed at, the crappy building in college or told to get a real job. This world is seems to be built like a factory where from kindergarten you’re told to sit down, shut up and do the same thing as everyone else.
Another reason people hate 37signals is because 37signals writes about how they’ve been successful in business and people claim it can’t “always” be done like that. Well of course, it doesn’t work for everyone, otherwise we’d all be rich, right? Do you really want another general advise business book or a company writing about practices they don’t actually do; or do you want to hear about what a company actually did to be successful?
We’re The Same
I love this company not because of their products, but because of their attitude. You see, if you’ve been around here for any length of time, you’ve probably gathered that I’m the type of person who says what’s on my mind no matter how appropriate it is or isn’t. My mother taught me early on about the importance of truthfulness, and although it’s “offended” some people, it’s never led me astray.
Do you want to know how to really be successful as a freelancer? The type of freelancer who’s always scheduled up and making over six figures? I’ll tell you the secret and I won’t even charge you three payments of $79.99 for it…
Be You
The secret is this…be you. Have personality. Stop being a boring businessperson. No one wants to work with a serious robot. If they did they’d go to Agency X for work. They want to work with someone who knows how to joke, who can laugh and make the client smile when the client is freaking out.
Don’t worry about offending anyone. You could be the nicest person in the entire university and there’ll always be plenty of people who will take offense to that. Most of them are just waiting for an opportunity to be offended. Ignore them. You don’t want them anyways.
This world is so quick to put out personalities. How many times have you heard that you need “professional and serious web copy?” That you need to dress in a suit and tie to meet clients? That you should never smile or crack jokes? Those people are losers and I can guarantee they’re not successful.
This is me
So I’m warning you now, this is me. Yes, this blog is about design, development and freelancing. But if you want the same old crap, you can go to the 1,000,000 other blogs in existence. This is the blog of me. What I’m doing, what I’ve learned and how I can share it with you to help you get there faster than I did.
If you don’t like someone who speaks their mind, has a personality or tells the truth, please go somewhere else.
And that is why I love 37signals….
About the author
Amber Weinberg specializes in clean and semantic XHTML, CSS and WordPress development. She has over 10 years of coding experience and is pretty cool to work with. Amber is available for freelance work, so why not hire her for your next project?
Well said Amber, personally I like reading alot of the design blogs because of the facts you stated above, they all have and show their own personality, they don’t go with the norm.
There stuff is very good i think most people envy them and this turns to jealousy.
They made a good business going against the norm i respect that. Blogs are about a persons view i think nothing wrong with voicing it. I just think people dont like to discuss, we all have our own views of right and wrong way of things and views of people etc, but people should hate just because they dont agree or do not like what is being said….
Freedom of speech still exists in part right….
Keep up the good work Amber.. and 37Signals they books are amazing lol..
You’re exactly right. If it’s something different, than people automatically assume it’s wrong.
that should of been shouldn’t above my mistake lol
LOL I love this line “Those people are losers and I can guarantee they’re not successful.” I see those types of posts all the time and it really bugs me. If you’re not a suit & tie person, don’t let those blog posts make you feel like have to be one in order to get work. You’ll only attract the types of clients you don’t want to work with and more importantly, you won’t be true to yourself, which will make your work less satisfying.
Hahaha! Rock on! Well said Amber! That’s exactly why I read your blog. You tell it like it is.
Great post. I love 37signals and their products, but I do think they come off as arrogant sometimes but I don’t know if its all perception. I think if my products netted more than 5 million users and operated on web-based products, It would be hard to not feel cool.
I do hear the criticism a lot that the advice they give only works for them or whatever, but I’ve actually used some of the advice from “Rework” ( the book by Jason Fried) and I have to say, the stuff works.
I feel like 37signals advice is a lot like budget management and weight-loss advice. There is no secret. They are telling you outright what needs to be done, but most people just don’t use the advice given and then talk about how it doesn’t work.
In reality that makes sense though, doesn’t it? Why would they talk about business stuff they’ve never tried before, or stuff that didn’t work for them? Wouldn’t that make them liars?
Indeed it would.
Way to knock it out of the park.
Thanks
I really wish we lived closer, we would so get along. I take the same philosophy on honesty and personality. If you don’t like me, that’s fine, but don’t ask me to change. I’m not changing anything about me, because it’s working well for me, thanks. Contrary to the liberal left, people love honesty, they actually seek it out because they’re bombarded with BS (and PC) from all around them. Honesty is refreshing, and I assume you get your fair share of advice solicitation because of it.
Rock on, Amber.
Haha thanks, I think we would ^_^
Just got done reading Rework from your recommended reading. Loved it! The book actually made me excited about starting my own business, and made the task seem less daunting. Keep on keepin’ on!
Glad you love it! Nikita is reading it right now and he’s laughing ever so hard
Just finished reading it last night. Great recommendation.
I couldn’t agree more. I really think you’re doing a great job, your posts are very inspiring, and I like them a lot.
I was thinking today that if there were more Jasons out there (people thinking like 37signals), I shouldn’t have to be a freelance to work from home, when and how I like.
Keep on being you. You’ve definitely become a reference for me.
I love things that are different! I think that humor (as long as it’s not crossing too many boundaries) can be a good asset when engaging with customers or colleagues.
Good work Amber. Articles are easier to read when they are honest and littered with personality. Otherwise they just put me to sleep.
I hate suits.
I love 37 signals as well. I love that they built there products around that idea that they built their products on the fact quality of features is always better than quantity of features. They view the world at slightly different angle…
Amber, I enjoy your blog and all the effort you put forth to add to and improve the community. You really do stellar work.
I just wanted to say I’ve been following 37s for years now and I’ve never seen them publish anything that borders on offending someone for their sexuality, race, or creed. They pretty much stick to business and design, which aren’t really areas where people get offended. I don’t know if it’s fair to rope them into your defense.
I used to say ‘gay’ in the way you did in your other post, but once I started working with gays and lesbians, my feelings started to change. I stopped saying it because it either has the possibility of offending people or it flat out does. I can understand their perspective since it’s often used instead of “bad,” “terrible,” “crappy,” or whatever negative word you want.
I totally agree with being who you are and letting that shine, but saying things that have the chance of offending people is probably better saved for venues other than the internet.
Plus, I used to have an iPhone and now I have had a Droid for a year and I love it!
I can tether, use Google Voice, have service everywhere… yeah the hardware doesn’t compare to an iPhone 4, but at this point, what does?
“I used to say ‘gay’ in the way you did in your other post, but once I started working with gays and lesbians, my feelings started to change. I stopped saying it because it either has the possibility of offending people or it flat out does. I can understand their perspective since it’s often used instead of “bad,” “terrible,” “crappy,” or whatever negative word you want.”
Gay actually means a state of happiness….it’s not my fault a group of people decided to take over a word. Plus, I don’t refer to “gay” people as gay since it is a derogatory word. I refer to them as homosexual.
Also, 37signals says a lot of things that offend people, which is why they have so many haters
The droid IS gay. People need to lighten up. If someone said “dude the iPhone is so dorky white guy”, I wouldn’t care, I might disagree, but getting offended over that is just a waste of time and if the INTERNET isn’t the place to “be who you are and let that shine”, where is? The internet is the last real forum for free speech. “Articles are easier to read when they are honest and littered with personality”, exactly, guy.
37 Signals is awesome, I actually DO like Basecamp, but to each their own. I felt Rework was a little obvious, but maybe it wasn’t written explicitly for the freelance developer. Their strategy, simplicity and “we do things the way that makes sense to humans” approach makes them very fun to follow.
Exactly. So it’s not offensive to make Jew jokes, blonde jokes or call us crackers, but it’s offensive to call an inanimate object gay?
Awesome…blogpost on 37 signals has directed on to your blog..me as a first timer to your blog has converted me to look for more content and blogs on your site..well done…keep giving us more things to learn!!
err I continue to keep receiving an malfunction whenever attempting to skip towards the next posting
Great post Amber,
I always enjoy reading your responses over on Drawar (I’m CraftyDevon there), and I’ve just recently came across your blog.
I’ve really enjoyed seeing businesses (both larger corporations and smaller business/freelancers) go the route of fun. While there have always been companies that have taken the approach of fun and humor, I’m starting to see it more often now, from web design, to advertising, to general management. While I do own a suit, I want to spend most of my time with the kind of client who doesn’t mind me wearing shorts and a t-shirt. People want to work with People, not suits looking to jump from client to client. I’m a freelancer/entrepreneur because I don’t want to be in a dull 9-5, I want to do what I love, and hopefully pay the bills.
As far as the word “Gay” goes, I don’t think you meant any offense to anyone. Being someone with a lot of gay friends, I have worked to not use the word anymore, mainly because I have seen first hand the kind of hurt it can cause. I think a lot of people dislike it because it aids the attitude that being Gay is bad, while words like stupid don’t do that.
As far as Blondie jokes go, well….sorry, they’re just to good to pass up.
Haha see! No one loves a blonde
Eh, I didn’t say I didn’t love em, they just often present the perfect opportunity for corny humor.