I see this piece as a marketing material with implicit message: "use Basecamp.Next, not Asana, Trello, Sprintly, or other products".
I've got to give the man a prop: well done marketing-wise, well done.
He's basically making the reasonable point to build quality shit people actually want to use without accounting gimmicks and all else will follow. Funny that it takes a Danish guy to understand the American Way™.
He's tired of all the Kool Kids making a product with no hope of ever making money somehow landing millions in VC. It's offending to those of us that actually build things people want to use, but don't happen to live in the right place or have the right institution on their résumé.
He doesn't need to; it would undermine the credibility of his message, and given 37signals' business principles, he stands to gain more by spreading FUD towards VC-backed startups in general than by plugging any one particular product.
If this is a marketing piece, who is it marketing towards? It certainly doesn't read as if it is written for people who decide what web-based collaboration software their company will use.
The difference between DHH and others is that he's actually practicing what he preaches more often than not.
While 37Signals are brilliant marketers, not every opinion is marketing speak. They actually believe this stuff and don't mind sharing what they think.
I think some people associate the word marketing with lies, scams, and whatnot. What if we view the word marketing as a way to market products in a more neutral sense.
Can his honesty a marketing material? why not? it depends who reads it.
A message can be a marketing material regardless the intention behind it.
> The difference between DHH and others is that he's actually practicing what he preaches more often than not.
I think we all know that otherwise we'll call people who don't practice what they preach as a not-genuine.
> They actually believe this stuff and don't mind sharing what they think.
Most people believe on what they build/working on, otherwise it's a one-trick pony and it takes a lot of guts to work in such place especially for engineers.
>> marketing material with implicit message: "use Basecamp.Next, not Asana, Trello, Sprintly, or other products".