Ruby, Rails, Web2.0 » Blog Archive » DHH: Fuck the Real World
http://www.rubyrailways.com/dhh-fuck-the-real-world/

“We don’t have 200k RSS subscribers because of my deliciously swirly hair” - a central question (asked also during the Q/A session): how on the earth did Basecamp and other 37signals products become so popular? All of a sudden, they emerged from nowhere! As David points out, it was not that ‘out of the blue’ as it looks like. When they started with Basecamp, they already had 2000 subscribers on their blog, Signal vs Noise, so they built a channel which through they could advertise themselves. This advice meshes with one of my favorite points from Getting Real which goes something like “Just start doing something”. Really. Start blogging. Creating/contributing to open source software. Get on twitter. Let your voice be heard! You probably won’t have thousands of listeners right away, that’s OK - it takes time. But you can start today!

Whenever we have to put in or feel that we have to put in a preference in our software, we pretty much consider that a defeat. We were not good enough. We were not good enough at coming up with a reasonable choice that most people would like most of the time.

For me a good user interface is a simple user interface. It's a user interface that doesn't try to expose or reveal too many features or preferences.

David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago, says that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. He argues that constraints--fiscal, temporal, or otherwise--drive innovation and effective problem-solving. The most important thing, Hansson believes, is to make a dent in the universe with your company.