[0nly1ife]

SvN, Getting Real, and Rework are an indirect marketing campaign for Basecamp. Sensationalized, aggressive, and confrontational articles attract more readers and more Basecamp signups. I love 37signals, but sometimes I wonder if they are providing me with good radical business advice or if they are raising controversy to attract attention.

[tptacek]

Both, of course.

[blasdel]

Based on a conversation I had with Jason Fried, I'd say neither.

They publish this stuff primarily just for the sake of writing it. It's an outlet for a company that purposefully avoids adding features to their products if at all possible. It's a deliberate practice to keep themselves creative — the megalomaniacal marketing is just added ego-gravy.