Your 'maybe it's just me' is a good example of what is often lacking in the 37signals writings. I haven't read rework, but Getting Real is exactly like this article describes: locally, even widely locally, good advice, presented with a presumably more easily rhetorically digestible universality.
The problem is that it's a lot harder to build a following while permitting doubt or ambiguity. So what you have is a number of extremely popular figures who each present what has worked for them without even entertaining the idea that that doesn't necessarily imply that it is the best way to do things, always and in all places. And the gurus often don't agree, but nobody seems to mind too much until the gurus' own projects finally triumph or fail, after which point the correct point of view immediately takes on the property of always having been obvious.
It's not necessarily JF's fault. The rewards for stridency are great, because there is always an audience for it.
It's not necessarily JF's fault. The rewards for stridency are great, because there is always an audience for it.
This is such a great explanation for what's going on here. I've often wondered if people who have been really successful at one thing and preach that method only (read: almost all gurus) are perhaps less informed about success and what will get you there than people who read a number of the gurus. Maybe they just got lucky :|
The problem is that it's a lot harder to build a following while permitting doubt or ambiguity. So what you have is a number of extremely popular figures who each present what has worked for them without even entertaining the idea that that doesn't necessarily imply that it is the best way to do things, always and in all places. And the gurus often don't agree, but nobody seems to mind too much until the gurus' own projects finally triumph or fail, after which point the correct point of view immediately takes on the property of always having been obvious.
It's not necessarily JF's fault. The rewards for stridency are great, because there is always an audience for it.