Share Your Story

February 1st, 2008

A hotly contested argument here in the Phoenix area is that it is a culture desert as well as real desert. That nothing is ever happening and there is no excitement. While I think we have a long ways to go, there certainly is some exciting stuff happening locally. Refresh Phoenix is a big part of that.

Here at Integrum we have been inviting other shops to occupy space with us rent free to try to stimulate relationships and information to take things to the next level. Forty has been occupying space for sometime and we have really enjoyed the fruits of co-working.

We have been extending this and now have Draw Backwards lined up to occupy and start co-working. I don’t think I can adequately articulate the advantages to working in this way without having real experience with it. The amount of energy that comes out working in this environment is incredible. Which brings me to the whole reason for this stupid blog post (I have had it on my list to blog about co-working for like 6 months)...

At the SEED Conference Jason Fried talked about great chef’s make their name by releasing their cookbook. That is sharing the secret to their success. 37 Signals of course did this with Getting Real. I shared with James Archer and ACME Photography that someone really needs to do this for photography. There is no good place to get that expert photographer mojo.

So yesterday Adam came out for a photo shoot and some lunch. Lunch was incredible. We at Ninja and had some wicked Teppanakyi (sp). The conversation was hilarious and there are some new surprises brewing out of the conversations. Normally Im all about sharing the information and bouncing ideas, but one of these requires some secrecy not because of any business plan or trade secrets, but in order to have the proper impact it has kind of hit you out of the blue.

Back to the chef of photography. Hearing Adam and James talk about processing labs, photo paper and a myriad of other topics I was in awe of how much I was learning by just watching. So guys when are you gonna start your video podcast? SERIOUSLY! Then the photo shoot was amazing. Adam truly is a master in how he works. I think someone said “we should do this every week, it’s so much fun”. I think corporate photo shoot I think… YUCK!!! However, the ACME magick has people requesting for it weekly. Someone needs to bottle this and share it with the world.

Adam / James I urge you please take it to the next level. Share your craft and increase our awe in what you are able to do behind the lens. I really really want to learn how to use ABE (ACME Beard Enhancer).

2 comments have been made on 'Share Your Story'

James Says:
February 1st, 2008 at 07:17 PM "Jason Fried talked about great chef’s make their name by releasing their cookbook. That is sharing the secret to their success. 37 Signals of course did this with Getting Real." Hardly. Reading a cook book by a great chef is unlikely to be anywhere near sufficient to having you become a great chef. And Getting Real was more a collection of epigrams and "read into it what you want to believe" sound bites than an actual dissertation on what it takes to be successful. Great chef's do not make their name by releasing books. They make their name by being great chefs. Then they make some bucks by selling books capitalizing on that name. Web companies do that too. Realistically, very few people or companies can factually explain their success. At best they look back of what they just happened to have done, apply some selective memory, and declare them to be divine wisdom, while forgetting all the luck, coincidence, and personal quirks that perhaps even they could not duplicate.
Derek Neighbors Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 10:46 AM James all good points. I think in my haste I put things in word context that missed the point. I think what Jason was saying is it is what makes the difference between a great chef that is a household name and just a great chef. He was trying to articulate by being a bit more open about how things work and how you do things generates excitement about what you are doing more so than if you didn't share that experience. I think you would probably agree that basecamp would not have nearly the number of users if 37signals had not made rails open source software and had not released getting real. The software would in essence be the same, but the exposure is in a whole different world now. I do not think in anyway they were saying by exposing what you do, that you make you great at it. :) Just wanted to clarify.