The folks at 37Signals look at things differently. Most of the time it works, too. Their products approach activities like project management from a totally different angle. They favor fewer features and super-simple usability over appeasing the slack-jawed masses. Their book Getting Real, has become the user manual for a new way of thinking about software design. These principles are pervasive through all of their work.
I came across an example of this when reading their blog today. As with any blog or forum, it draws its fair share of detractors, commonly referred to as “trolls”. Most sites employ moderators who remove inappropriate comments or develop community tools to encourage self policing. 37Signals approach is different. They take the “trolls’” comments and label them as such (with a Troll/Dunce Hat in tow) and then place them front and center in the comments. It is simple and it works.
It works, because the majority of trolls on their site are software developers just like them and their audience is comprised of software developers. If someone is trying to incite something by sharing an opinion, 37Signals believes you have the right to do so, but you have the own it, dunce cap and all. In the worst case, the troll faces the derision of his peers, in the best, it sparks a lively debate that may just yield a better product. At the end of the day, though, it invites discussion and says to the trolls, “if you have something to say, you had better be prepared to defend it”.
never made it on the show). The irony is that just as Dennis Cass is lamenting the seemingly asinine hoops he must jump through in order to promote his book – to the degree that he states that in his dreams of becoming an author it certainly included being the star of internet videos – he is executing the single best promotional tool for his book, via a YouTube video no less.
Drool Worthy Sites
The culinary industry seems to have been slow to embrace the web. While there are a number of notable food bloggers and loads of great recipe sites (a handful of great technique driven sites have been cropping of late as well thanks to the proliferation of video tools), the retail side of things seems to be dominated by brick-and-mortar stalwarts like Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table and online giants like Amazon and Cooking.com. All of this has amounted to equivalent of the mega mart being the only place to try and buy high quality equipment and ingredients. While this is all well and good, the nature of the beast is that small and local tend to offer better quality and price than big and, well, far-off. For that reason, it is difficult to find truly great items among the mass of mediocre on most sites.
For this reason, I collect bookmarks of good sites like Hummels and doilies. This weekend I had some time to peruse a few cooking magazines and came away with the following gems worth passing along.
I am always on the lookout for additional resources and will try and share more in the future. If you have any reputable high-quality sites you would like to share, please add them in the comments.