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In defense of Mr. Pernicious (Jason Fried) and Big Shoulders (Chicago)

On June 1st Jason Fried published “Never Read Another Resume” via Inc.com. It was thematically correct in the sense that Jason tends to go on irreverently about strange abstractions of reality. For me it was just another moment in his timeline. For Scott Olsen, it was the last straw. Two days ago Scott wrote a scathing rebuttal to Jason and all who follow him. Scott is a great writer and I found his views both hilarious and on-point until… he came after Chicago.

FUCK! – I AM SO TIRED OF PEOPLE SNIPING AT CHICAGO!

First, let me take care of Jason with a quick highly editorialized review of his journey. Ten(ish) years ago Jason and his colleagues, members of the elite design group 3rst (thirst), spun off a web-design company that they creatively named 37signals after the total number of signals SETI had captured that *could* represent intelligent life. They were successful as we all were because it was the very top of the internet bubble. It was raining gold those days.

Then the bubble burst. 

Instead of joining a pottery club, or going back to school, or weeping at the edge of a valley that became a trailer park, Jason and his team decided to build a tool to help other design firms build closer relationships with their clients. They were successful, it’s called Basecamp. We use it, all of you should. Jason grew his self-proclaimed tiny empire out of the rubble and has since released a number of other successful products (some more than others). Jason changed his game and ours – for that and that alone, he deserves his spot in the sun. So here it is… Thank you Jason, you have made my business better and my clients happier. You are crazy, but I love you.

So why dig up Jason’s history in his defense? Because I believe you, Mr. Olson, have a Pernicious Lack of Perspective. If you know anything about Jason you should understand that he’s just a guy pointing at the moon, not giving point-by-point driving directions. He is organic, responsive, and chaotic. He is also brilliant. I fault you for taking his rants literally and also not maintaining your “west coast calm.” Jason is notorious for his ‘question everything’ approach. We share that in common but to a large extent he has found greater success in it.

Quickly, I have my share of experience with San Francisco and Silicon Valley. I love them both, they are entirely different. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Silicon Valley, in offices with “recycled” furniture for office equipment. I’ve sat across from Jeff Hawkins (his space was nicer) sharing ideas on the future of intelligent computing. Sure, I’ve occasionally referred to SV as “The Land of Unicorns and Rainbows,” but it has always been with love. Who doesn’t love unicorns? It makes perfect sense that San Franciscans are very eager to annex SV, it’s a magical place.

So why am I based in Chicago? Very simple… Family. I was raised in Battle Creek Michigan and my wife grew up in Milwaukee. We are northerners. I don’t find solace in subtle seasonal shifts. I like change. I like leaves that drop and cold that bites, and snow that… well whatever snow does.. you get it.

I also love the people. Nobody hunkers down and get’s it done like Chicagoans. Sure we have a temper (you’re getting that, right?) and sure some of us have a funny accent, but we love what we do and we *are* “The City of Big Shoulders.”

Here’s a short list of comparisons of the two cities:

• Chicago has as very active film history, San Francisco… less so (some classics tho).
• San Francisco makes blue jeans, Chicago makes rocket ships.
• Sure you could poke us because you founded the world’s most popular web browser but we were there first and we’re coming to get you. Also yours wouldn’t still be around without a bunch of cash from a certain Menlo Park company. You could point at this but then we’d have to poke at that. Actually we’ll call this one a tie.
• For traveler’s we are the center of the universe, you are not. (Mad props to LAX tho.)
• Chicago is home to 17 Fortune 500 companies, San Francisco is home to 10.
• Chicago Innovators are awesome, umm… I couldn’t find a community award site for San Francisco… Sorry.
• You have an IDEO office, we have one too. Another tie.
• We feed the world, you import it.

Here is some more interesting comparative information from a technology company not founded in San Francisco. I’ve got work to do so I have to cut this short (lol) but wanted to give props to EveryBlock for their recent acquisition, Threadless for remaining oh-so-cool, McDonalds for making me fat, Tanagram (go us! – plug!), 37Signals, and the rest of us that don’t work for the park district (well… them too).

Shameless plug for the Chicago Poster Biennial!

9 Million of us are watching you Mr Olson. You betcha!

Posted by Joseph Juhnke on June 25, 2010