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Comment by malbiniak | Hacker News Reader

With all due respect to Jason and DHH, I wouldn't consider 37signals a "friendly" company. Mailchimp is a friendly company, but even still, I could see Ben (or any founder) having a similar reaction.

If I found someone blatantly repurposing something I worked hard to create, I'd have a similar reaction. This guys aren't CXOs of a Fortune 100 company that need to fear how the board and stock holders may react (and god fucking bless 'em for that). They're scrappy guys still hustling like they launched yesterday.

Calling them "fucking scumbags" isn't a cocky response, it's a free reality check. Poor Allan had a pretty significant lapse of judgment, and DHH may have given him the most valuable lesson of his life.

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They're scrappy guys still hustling like they launched yesterday.

I don't think DHH has had a need to hustle in a while. He could have easily embarrassed cluebit with a witty remark, rather than embarrassing himself at the same time by the choice of language.

For DHH to have "embarrassed himself," he would have to feel embarrassed. He clearly doesn't, since he uses this kind of straightforward, salty language all the time.

It's only in your head that he is embarrassed.

You can embarrass yourself without feeling it, watch a political debate sometime.

And yes, in my head I do feel embarrassed for him when I see him lowering himself to name-calling over such a trivial issue.

I have no problems with salty language between equal opponents or when the other side is clearly malicious. In this case the opponent is such a pity that it feels akin to someone slapping a 5yr old for scratching their lamborghini.

I don't and wouldn't use the language that he did.

But what he said was true. This wasn't ad hominem because it wasn't an argument. The argument is clear, Curebit stole, and have apologized. Therefore his reaction is not an attack but an accurate label.

Whether it is "professional" or not is a different story.

I don't know about that, the founders of Curebit are old enough to be held responsible for their actions. A 5 year old, not so much.

A 5-year-old who is probably actually in his 20s, just got $1.2 million in funding, and said "yeah I stole, but it was only up for a week, and only a test, lesson: if I steal, give credit"?

Please. If we're going to hold an intelligent debate, you need to work on your analogies.

I think the funding reflects more on the investors than anything else.

And the level of incompetence at play here is precisely what makes DHH's reaction feel so out of place. Without thinking anyone could come up with a dozen classy ways to play the situation. Instead he chose the one that makes himself look less than ideal...

I don't think DHH has had a need to hustle in a while.

Exactly. Guys in his situation don't need to, but they still choose to. When you're playing with that sort of passion and intensity, you defend with vigor. That's embarrassing?

It's not like he drove over to cluebit's office and started smashing shit. He called him/them out. That's it, that's all.

Strong language and strong feelings over work is considered very unprofessional and therefore an "embarrassment" to workaday types with starched blue oxford shirts and khaki pants. It's their worldview, which is fine. Except the starched shirts are always going around telling the rest of us (with green hair, funny company names, or a love of limber, lashing, fierce words) that we are wrong and unacceptable when we're just going about our business the way we (and our customers) like.

The starched shirts feel a need to make everyone conform to their view.

So sadly, it's never "that's all" when it comes to them. We shall fight them on the shores, etc. etc.

I don't think DHH has had a need to hustle in a while.

It's cluebit that are scrappy guys still hustling, even if they got over a million in investor money...

37Signals is making their point heard, but it's not the professional way to handle things. I completely understand the reaction, DHH is rightfully upset. It's usually best to take some time to cool off and then respond when you're a little less emotional.

That's not DHH way. He is fast with everything.

But that doesn't make it right. "It's how he approaches everything" isn't a reason, it's context.

Just because an emotional response goes against MBA Corporate PR 101 doesn't make it wrong. He can do whatever he wants, and he does. In the context of his company, I'd even say it's a winning business strategy, because it's different and doesn't feel artificial, which is refreshing in this age of sterilized corporate communications, and is therefore memorable.

And there's nothing morally wrong about fighting back against people who have ripped you off.

While I believe DHHs reaction/words are entirely attributable to his passion for his company/product/coworkers, Cynical-Me also notes that this choice of public personality is generating an awful lot of pageviews/eyeballs/comments, and even the negative-to-DHH comments are largely positive about Highrise/37Signals.

If a hughely talented but completely amoral PR specialist had scripted this, perhaps it would have turned out exactly the same way...

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