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While I agree 37signals has a much more impressive product track record than Aaron does and know quite a bit about marketing their products, the source of a sta
by emmett 18y ago
While I agree 37signals has a much more impressive product track record than Aaron does and know quite a bit about marketing their products, the source of a statement has nothing to do with its validity. Either Aaron's argument is right, or it's wrong, independent of Aaron's status as a developer or entrepreneur.
That being said, I think Aaron is right about the proper method to launch a website, and also that if you look how 37signals actually acts, they launch products exactly that way.
- tptacek 18y agoI think there's a difference between the 37signals plan and the Aaron Swartz plan, which is that the Aaron Swartz plan says "don't market until you have happy customers", and then uses the spectre of product quality failures to back the argument up. Happy customers and crashing servers are orthogonal issues.
- rsheridan6 18y agoI actually agree with Aaron, but I do think his experience is relevant. Yes, he's either right or wrong regardless of his track record, but the intended reader doesn't know whether he's right or wrong, and won't know it without trying it. If you don't have reasonable way to verify whether what somebody says is true, looking at their credentials is probably the best you can do. In practice, we do that all the time. For example, you probably have an opinion on global warming, or whether smoking is bad for you, but did you read the relevant papers, or just take the word of the researchers you thought were most credible?
- emmett 18y agoIn this instance, we all happen to be people who spend a lot of time thinking about startups and websites. So it's like someone posting something on global warming to a climate modeling forum - I would expect people to judge on merits not authority.