Dharmesh Shah's Blog

First off, let me start by saying that I’m a huge 37signals fan.  I’ve watched the company for a while, bought/read the “Getting Real” book and even interviewed Jason Fried for my MIT graduate thesis on startups. (thanks Jason!)

However, I’m really finding it ironic that the “Signal vs. Noise” blog seems to be much more noise than signal these days.  I can appreciate the need for differentiation and personality, but part of the value that 37signals can bring to its blog readers is making it easy for people to read things of relevance.  By having such a high noise level, I think they’re doing their readers/customers/fans a disservice.

Here’s the description of the blog from the top of the site itself:  “This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about entrepreneurship, design, experience, simplicity, constraints, pop culture, our products, products we like, and more.”  Seriously, am I the only one that finds it ironic that the company that is all about simplicity and focus would have a blog (called Signal vs. Noise!) that is basically about so many different things?  If you’re a customer (like I am), do you really appreciate that they have information about their products buried in so much “noise”?

Perhaps it’s time to separate the blog into one that is more “personal” with a variety of topics and content, and another that focuses more on what a large majority of the readership, including customers, would likely consider “signal” (products, entrepreneurship, etc.).  There may be some that want to read about what Jason and team think about pop culture, and other random things, but I’m guessing (hoping) that they’re not the majority.

Not meaning for this to be a rant, but I think I think 37signals has created a lot of buzz for their mantra of simplicity, and I just don’t think that the blog really “fits”.  From a business perspective, I don’t think the blogging they’re now doing is serving them that well.  

Maybe its just me.  I could be totally off…