extantproject

That's fair enough. Thanks for your help.

I understand. I like being able to try things out too. I think you're right: we'll have to make some sort of interactive demo.

You said above that your biggest hesitation to signing up for a trial is that it's $5/month afterwards. Do you think you would have had less hesitation if we were doing something like this?

free: full-featured up to 128 atoms, with sign-up

$5/month: full-featured up to some reasonable limit on atoms (on the order of hundreds of thousands, a practical limit to guard against abuse)

We had been throwing around the idea of creating a quick demo that doesn't require signing up and doesn't persist your data. Recently we decided that we wouldn't implement that for now because we consider it a feature that your data persists in one place and want the trial to be full-featured. We also didn't want anyone to be confused about whether the data gets saved ("so I put some stuff in Atombox and now it's gone?").

I like your idea of persisting the data and using a URL as an access key, though. I hadn't thought of that.

Do you think a screencast would be sufficient to get people over the initial stand-off of not wanting to sign up?

Thanks!

Yes, we use Atombox for doing GTD, along with Google Calendar. I also keep a lot of small reference and support atoms in there, too (like the size of the tires on my car and wines I like).

We do have some ideas about notifications that we might implement in the future but it's not necessary to have notifications to do GTD. Access to your lists wherever you are is the linchpin for that use case.

Thanks for your comment.

Yes, I've seen it work at a big company that has a vacation "policy". If you're talking about salary they probably want to hire you, so don't wimp out in negotiation. Don't drag it on too long, but don't accept their first verbal offer either.

General plan (especially with big companies): overshoot your idea of a reasonable salary by 20% or something, and when they come back "low" ask for more vacation, citing the "difference".

"You can do both." - Gary Vaynerchuk

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/78962355/you-can-have-bothjob...

They really do block quite a bit of noise; with music playing I usually don't hear anything else, even in a noisy shared work environment.

Sony MDR-V6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_MDR-V6 http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR-V6-Monitor-Headphones-Voice/d...

4.2.2.1

All cell phones expose "your whereabouts and [provide] ways for others to track you without your knowledge" via cell tower triangulation. At a minimum, this point is FUD.

Right on.

Right. Don't put the carriage before the horse. If you have living expenses taken care of and time to spend then you can create something. It does not take investment to get started. Don't think about it too much and just make something.

... or as Guy Kawasaki put it (http://www.changethis.com/1.ArtOfTheStart):

"GET GOING. Start creating and delivering your product or service. Think soldering irons, compilers, hammers, saws, and AutoCAD -— whatever tools you use to build products and services. Don't focus on pitching, writing, and planning."

i.e. make something first.

"The Fabric of Reality" is horrible; there's way too much hand-waving going on in that book.

I hadn't thought of programming this way but it rings true. Call it the "genius complex" or "hacker complex": wanting to create something great alone and in a short timeframe then "unveil" it and bask in praise from peers. Unfortunately for self-approved geniuses and hackers, great things are built incrementally.

"The Myths of Innovation" by Scott Berkun has something to say along these lines but in general terms rather than in terms of programming. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Innovation-Scott-Berkun/dp/05965...

What I'm getting at is that 37 Signals, while they might complain about competition, probably isn't all that concerned because they have a healthy revenue stream. Their revenue may be taken away later, but they'll be able to deal with that the same way they dealt with no revenue when they were just starting: making something people want and straight-up selling it to customers. In the meantime they're making bank.

Competitors do validate your market. That doesn't mean you like them (e.g. http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/).

A startup can be a healthy business with revenue -- of course -- but 37 Signals is not a startup. 37 Signals is a business in the traditional sense; they're focused on generating revenue instead of an exit.

37 Signals has sustained revenue. They are not a startup in the same sense as YC or Silicon Valley thinks of a startup but they have the linchpin of a healthy business -- and every healthy business dislikes competition.

... 37 Signals is eating 37 Signals' lunch for now.

FUD

Important stories like Twitter's downtime or del.iciou.us not pushing new software when Arrington decides they should?

Apple and the iPhone are not roughly parallel to "living in a locked down communist country." You pay for the iPhone. You pay for the cell service. You pay for the shiny MacBook. Nobody makes you pay for these things; you don't have to use Apple products or services if you don't want to. In a communist country you will participate or be imprisoned or killed.

If you're looking for something along the same lines but not vague and Godin-like, check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Everyware-Dawning-Ubiquitous-Computing...

They are so done for!

Hey Tech Crunch, Maybe It's Better Not To Blog Absolutely Everything.

I'm definitely a Googlectual.

Look up the word "world" in a dictionary. Then look up the definitions of each of the words in the definition of "world". Then look up the words in those definitions. Continue on like this until you'd rather not.

It's all about the candles! Here I thought it was about Différance.

Oops. Sorry about that. It's actually going to be on The View:

http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/wp-content/collage1.png

http://a.abc.com/media/daytime/theview/tyra_250x150.jpg

envy