530 words and this article reaches no conclusions at all. What is the point here? "37signals are idiots. Or maybe not. But they're hypocrites because sometimes they change their plans. Or, well, they might be hypocrites or they might just be intelligent and roll with the punches. I dunno. I bet they make a lot of money."
Is this some literary form I'm unfamiliar with, where you make a bunch of aggressive statements and then handwave them?
No, the people who buy their app are "idiots". Either way 37signals makes money from glorified simplicity, which is both a marketing trick and a good idea.
They claim to have wanted a tool that did this and nothing more.
I'm guessing they realized if they did a little more work they could put it up for sale and gain another (mostly) passive income stream. Yes, it will do better than it would have otherwise due to their established audience. They're smart enough to leverage this to their benefit. Nobody is forced to buy it or even read about it beyond seeing a headline flying by.
It seems consistent with the same strategy they applied successfully in the past to profit from Basecamp and Rails: both were leftovers or spinoffs of what was originally their core business, consulting.
Is this some literary form I'm unfamiliar with, where you make a bunch of aggressive statements and then handwave them?