I don’t normally link to 37Signals¹, but this lecture is worth watching. It’s one of the first inspiring lectures on business that I feel good about: it’s sharp, honest, and highly critical of the status quo. Even if you don’t agree with all of it, it should nudge you to think more realistically about the business of software.

1. You already read their feed, don’t you? ↩

Kottke hits it on the nail with Facebook’s lack of public content. Other people have suggested the creep factor, but I haven’t really seen much of it yet (cliques seem to keep to their own). In the end, its shelf life will be short, as is pretty much anything online.

Facebook does do something well that no one has been able to do yet, not AOL, not MySpace, or the others. They’ve captured relationships (networking in the business world) in a way that’s downright slick. It’s damned easy to use too, for the normal folk, and is providing a huge amount of entertainment for people who don’t normally hack at web stuff.

A detailed “autopsy” of 4 webapps, including line counts (server/client/styles), and comparisons of conversion rates and relative support costs. The most interesting tidbit: conversion rates of 1% are common in the sample set.

A great business card idea: using a tag cloud on the back side.

The New York times has a slick renting versus buying calculator, less biased than the ones provided by lenders and property agents.

[stars: 5] Getting Real, the dead-tree version. A damned inspiring read, well worth the price of admission. The book is targeted to web development projects, but makes sense for many types of businesses. The mantra cuts to the core of the hacker/maker ethic: Enjoy what you do, do it simply, and do it fucking well.

The Chief Happiness Officer writes about Business lessons from the Nintendo Wii. Don’t sweat the specs: make ‘em happy.

Joel on context switching. He’s right too, there are a balance of principles at work: developers need to stay focused to be productive, but businesses are smart to take care of their customers.

Another nail in Palm’s coffin.

If you haven’t read Getting Real from 37Signals, you should. It’s the hacker way of thinking about business and software, with a sense of balance that’s downright respectable.