21–30 of 68 posts
from article "I have the pleasure of working with real businesspeople who care about doing a good job, not talking about doing a good job." Well, I don't know if he did research about the software that 37Signals has made, but I consider Ruby on Rails a "good job". I haven't used any of their other products (Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire), but I would bet that the 3 million people using them would consider th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read the back cover. That was enough to know it's more of the same. Not for me. "Fire workaholics", "Meetings are toxic", etc etc it's just linkbait hyperbole. I think this review managed to accurately sum up what 37signals puts out.
"Meetings are toxic" was in their last book. It's a hyperbolic title, but the content is more subtle. http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch07_Meetings_Are_Toxic.php "Fire workaholics" was a blog post. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/902-fire-the-workaholics The review was defensive, because 37signals prove that many typical management techniques are not necessary for success. This is a status risk for the review author,…
Meetings Are Toxic
Don't have meetings
For those times when you absolutely must have a meeting
(this should be a rare event), stick to these simple rules:
Please.
Are all the startups here having meetings every day without any vague sort of agenda? Would they blindly keep having meetings if they proved to be unproductive? no.
It's great that 37signals have worked this out, but I don't think there's many people who don't know it/can't figure it out for themselves.
I have a feeling this writer has no idea who 37signals is. He's probably realizing right about now that he's stepped on a land mine with exploding 37signals fanboys. Edit: No offense to fans of 37signals (I read svn). This guy is about to get a lesson in how many fans of 37signals there are.
The review was wonderfully British -- "What is it about Americans that they think 10 years is a long time?" -- which probably is the main reason behind the criticism. Real business people according to the author are probably those with a degree from LSE.
To a large extent celebrities are businesspeople nowadays. 37s has done nothing if not figure out a brilliant way to turn being web-famous into making money. While I think I'd take their business advice with a mound of salt (mostly because it's all expressed in such absolute terms as to be inherently meaningless) you have to admire the way they've used blogging and internet celebrity to turn a nice profit out of a product you could build in 2 weeks.
from article "I have the pleasure of working with real businesspeople who care about doing a good job, not talking about doing a good job." Well, I don't know if he did research about the software that 37Signals has made, but I consider Ruby on Rails a "good job". I haven't used any of their other products (Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire), but I would bet that the 3 million people using them would consider th…
Yes, by the review author's logic, no one should ever write a business book, because they are too busy doing a good job.
I'll read the book and formulate my own opinion on it. Thank you.
One of the points of a review is to suggest whether you should or should not spend your valuable time reading a book in the first place.
I'll read the book and formulate my own opinion on it. Thank you.
One of the points of a review is to suggest whether you should or should not spend your valuable time reading a book in the first place.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends. Maybe. Sometimes. Your milage may vary. Reasonable people understand these apply in most (but not all!) situations.
No doubt. But what the what the OP is trying to do is weasel away from a critique of the book by saying 'Well, it's really mostly about 37 signals. If you don't like it/doesn't work for you, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man'. I imagine you wrote the book with the notion that it is broadly (not universally) applicable, just like most books in the genre. And it's perfectly sensible to review it in those terms…
I've personally heard from thousands of business owners in just about every industry who've told me many of the ideas we espouse work beautifully for them in their businesses.
But, no of course I don't believe any idea applies to everyone.
Coming from the inside of the enterprise web publishing world I'd suggest it's not 37signals that is missing something.
Of course the author (of the review) did found a chain of restaurants...