> There's something a bit... I don't know quite how to put it. Let's just say that I bet she'd willingly trade places with him, cash out, and go enjoy herself instead of cleaning up after other people day in and day out.
See, the typical problem with claims like Fried made is that they're idealizing lives they don't know much about. But Fried didn't walk into that trap.
He doesn't remark on her home life. He doesn't remark on her happiness. He doesn't remark on her hopes and dreams. He says she's "respectful, nice, and awesome". His point is that her business is sustainable, adds value, and does good. He doesn't say, "I wish I was a cleaning lady." All he says is that her business model is a good business model, and he's inspired by it.
"All he says is that her business model is a good business model, and he's inspired by it."
He says:
"She’s been doing it some twenty-odd years, and that’s just an incredible success story. To me that’s far more interesting"
I have absolutely no idea why he feels that someone who has cleaned homes for 20 years is an incredible success story. It's almost as patronizing as it is naive.
What would be at least somewhat interesting is if she figured out a way to get paid 2x the hourly rate and/or get houses cleaned in 1/2 the time. Her station in life is to be happy cleaning homes. So she's a happy person. Great. What I'm not hearing is that he's living in her neighborhood or having her over for dinner etc. I hate this "I'm just a simple person let me go visit an ashram and live in nature" crap.
> I have absolutely no idea why he feels that someone who has cleaned homes for 20 years is an incredible success story. It's almost as patronizing as it is naive.
Project much?
> What would be at least somewhat interesting is if she figured out a way to get paid 2x the hourly rate and/or get houses cleaned in 1/2 the time.
How do you know that she hasn't?
He says that she's happy. He doesn't know much about how it makes happy or how it has developed. You think that you do and you think that she's doing it wrong....
Well then that's a pox on his house for not bringing up that very important point in a discussion related to how much he admires her when discussing business.
"You think that you do and you think that she's doing it wrong...."
My issue isn't at all with the cleaning lady. It's with the specific example of using the cleaning lady to make this point:
"She’s been doing it some twenty-odd years, and that’s just an incredible success story. To me that’s far more interesting than a tech company"
I don't even think he really means that actually. I fail to see what makes that "far more interesting than a tech company".
I don't really think we can get anywhere with speculation: he might see her happy because people are pretty good at putting on a mask in professional situations. Or maybe she just really is happy.
However, in the aggregate, I'd be willing to bet on most cleaning people preferring the income, and freedom that 37 signals have. With that kind of money, you have a lot of options that someone making cleaning wages just doesn't have.
Not speaking about this person (who neither of us know) but strictly about people in general by using an example of cows in a field.
A cow in a field can stand there all day and just graze on grass. Our cat can sit there all day and just do nothing. Could you do that? All day, every day?
People with brains are more complex. In general if she is happy doing cleaning work we can presume she doesn't have the same brain or needs, of, say someone with higher intelligence. People are different in what their needs are.
"he might see her happy because people are pretty good at putting on a mask in professional situations."
> People with brains are more complex. In general if she is happy doing cleaning work we can presume she doesn't have the same brain or needs, of, say someone with higher intelligence. People are different in what their needs are.
Well ok then what are you basing your thoughts on? I'm basing mine on a lifetime of meeting thousands of people from all walks of life and the story as presented by the OP.
I stand behind what I have said.
Would you be happy doing the simple tasks of cleaning houses everyday? Or do you prefer something more challenging like what you are doing (software development it appears). Or at least managing others doing the drudge work?
From the OP it doesn't appear that we are talking about someone making their way to something greater by cleaning houses but somebody who's station in life is cleaning houses.
Regardless of whether she was forced to clean houses because, for example, she was an immigrant or needed to feed a family she could have, with greater intelligence, risen to employ others to do the work for her at the very least. (My cleaning lady, from Brazil, has about 5 people working for her and I've seen examples of this with all sorts of people who start doing a task and rise to employ at least a few people to help out).
> From the OP it doesn't appear that we are talking about someone making their way to something greater by cleaning houses but somebody who's station in life is cleaning houses.
Why do you have this mindless obsession with ranking things in some arbitrary manner and then requiring that people climb your ladder?
If you set your sites low enough you can have a sustainable business. You can mow lawns or you can paint houses. That's being self employed with essentially what amounts to a job. That would be appropriate to talk about in a post about why it's better to do that rather than work for a large company.
Her business model is providing a service: exchanging her time for money.
37signals used to be in that business, but moved towards providing products, rather than services. Presumably because it scales better and makes more money, even though doing design/programming/sites certainly makes good money in a sustainable way.
Unless Google has legions of Oompa Loompas hiding in its server rooms running around retrieving data as queries come in, it's a product that provides a service: it does not scale linearly with the number of people working on it.
Put another way: each additional cleaning lady client consumes more of her time, and pays her more money in a fairly linear way. Google search users do not fit that pattern, and, more importantly, neither do Adwords customers.
It's pretty obvious that by "service" he means a business where you are paid per hour you work: all freelancers, consultants, and all other businesses where the owner is a critical daily employee.
Yes, that's not a typical word for the distinction, but you know what he means.
Do you understand what I am trying to communicate, or not?
It does not seem like a difficult concept, so cut out the "Comic Book Guy" routine. Go ahead and actually correct my terminology if you care to - furthering everyone's knowledge is always a plus - but otherwise you are not adding anything.
As far as I can tell, you were trying to use made-up words to say that Jason Fried was lying when he said he was inspired by his cleaning lady's business model because there was some particular difference between those two business models that you found significant but could not express except to vapidly define "services" as "that which cleaning ladies do" and "products" as "that which 37s is moving towards".
So I don't think they're made up at all, seeing as how they're in common use. It's probably true that there is not a black or white line between the two, and both can be good businesses, but I did think it fair to point out that cleaning is very much a "service" whereas 37 signals started out doing services (sites and so on) and moved towards products, which tend to scale up more.
See, the typical problem with claims like Fried made is that they're idealizing lives they don't know much about. But Fried didn't walk into that trap.
He doesn't remark on her home life. He doesn't remark on her happiness. He doesn't remark on her hopes and dreams. He says she's "respectful, nice, and awesome". His point is that her business is sustainable, adds value, and does good. He doesn't say, "I wish I was a cleaning lady." All he says is that her business model is a good business model, and he's inspired by it.