I read this article (from my backlogged RSS reader) this morning and found it very valuable, especially since I have been contemplating tackling the problem of budget & capacity constraints vs ambitions.

Personally I've come to the conclusion that along with working smarter, it's just a case of prioritizing one's time and chasing low-hanging fruit.

I absolute love the new Smiley campaign that 37Signals has implemented to track (and publicize) their customer satisfaction. Absolutely genuis!

In a recent article, they also share some insight into the data that they aren't publishing and the analysis makes for some interesting reading. As a 37Signals customer and someone that has tried to build his own business using the best of 37Signals knowledge, I love how I can actually see the team make a massive effort to get to 100% customer satisfaction. That is absolutely immense and I really appreciate how they are going about this in a very public, transparent and honest way, which just installs so much faith into them as a team and a company.

There's been a lot said lately about us replicating the Dot Com bubble all over again and even though a much-respected figure like Paul Graham has stated his believe that we're not in a bubble, the doubts remain.

I'm yet unconvinced by either to be honest; I understand all the reasons why people wouldn't think we're in a bubble, yet I'm very cautious about some of the valuations being thrown around in what may just be a very ambitious funding environment at present.

When all else fails though, fall back on what we know: years and years of data. The above-linked article highlights that (listed) tech companies at present trades on similar ratio's to other non-tech companies, which at least seems to indicate that people outside of the supposed bubble isn't throwing their money at it (which is what I understand happened in Dot Com).

What do you think about the bubble?

I've used a couple of CMS platforms in my life and I think that they are all great in their own way. Heck, I've even tried to build a business supporting multiple platforms.

I believe that the platform doesn't really matter and that every user should pick not the most popular platform, but the one that they feel most comfortable with and suits their needs best. Simple.

For my own projects... I'm happy to consider any platform as long as it's WordPress. :)