37signals, on of my favorite software development companies, and creators of the Ruby on Rails Framework, have made the move into a whole new territory.  “Easy Money”

They have essentially decided that it is easier to bring together content and content consumers than it is to create markets.  Nice insight.  A few years back they did the same thing that Joel Spolsky did which is realize that all the traffic they had was worth something, other than just as potential customers for their product.  Becuase the market of people who were reading their blogs, and visiting their website was already self-segmented and was of high value (people interested in specific things, and ready to take action) they decide to find a way to resell this attention. http://jobs.37signals.com/jobs http://decknetwork.net/

AND NOW

Haystack.com now Sortfolio.com Joel’s version of the same (his came first) http://jobs.joelonsoftware.com/ Maybe they prefer to sit comfortably leading and managing the economi-verse that ruby on rails has become, and using their prestige to become connectors instead of producers.  It is definitely a more fun work environment if all you need to do is opine, and judge.  Production and creation are definitely riskier and require more sweat. Who can blame them, after the success they’ve had they deserve a little bit of laurel resting. DISCLAIMER We had chosen Haystack as the CodeName for the project we are currently working on, and I was looking forward to the day that we might drop the money down to purchase this domain, so of course I have a little bit of spoiled grapes about losing out to them.  On the other hand I do like their design. In fact this is the main thing I like about 37signals is their aesthetic.