I don't think they ever suggest that their way is the only way. There's nothing wrong with saying how you do something and making a case for it; you don't have to add a disclaimer to everything you write about doing business.

I think you have a valid point. The reason I partially disagree with it is that attitude plays a part here. 37signals comes off as though they think they need to tell people how to live; they love being up in your grill. The contents of their posts are often reasoned well enough, but their attitude says "you suck; let us tell you how to suck less."

It's your choice to read their blog. The fact that you take their arguments seriously means that they're probably on to something.

I don't take their arguments seriously. I am merely annoyed by their posturing.

Compelling writing often forces one to take a strong position.

I'm going to reply again just to say: bullshit. Compelling writing doesn't need anything to back it up. You either have a point or you don't. Acting like an asshole just means you don't have much of anything to say.

Agreed. My point is just that 37signals doesn't have to go as far as they do. A somewhat milder position would aid their message.

Actually it almost certainly wouldn't, unless you mean specifically for you.

They're constantly in the press, they generate conversations on sites like this, and they've spawned a legion of (number)(noun) imitators. It's one of the basic principles of copywriting and social media marketing that it pays to be bold and occasionally controversial.

Pissing people off garners attention, sure. I'm not sure it's good business in the long run, though.

I don't want to say that nice guys finish last, but certainly a big slice of the people at the "top" of the tech world aren't taking the middle ground. Pissing people off seems to correlate with success.

Um, they're proving otherwise. They've pissed off a whole boatload of people, and their customer based is still growing.

It's that old, "it nobody hates you, you aren't doing anything worthwhile".

Or, maybe their bullshit hasn't caught up with them yet.

I agree, but...maybe it is good in the long term. I can conceive of that being the case.