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Well, I was waiting this for a long time! After 3 amazing days at the Confoo conference, I got home yesterday evening, tired but the head full of new ideas and techniques I’ve heard about at the conference. I stopped by to check the mailbox. There was a key in our box. This means that a package was waiting for me in the other bigger mailbox. I opened it and here it was, the long awaited book we’ve all been waiting for: REWORK!

If you are even only remotely involved in web technologies or web business, you probably already heard about this book by 37signals Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. If not, well, what are you waiting for ? Have a look here.

I don’t have a lot to say right now because I really just read a few pages (it’s the week-end you know, family stuff ), but so far, as it was to be expected, I like it!  And on second page of the book (actually page 4), a nice little sentence that can explain in part why 37signals’ opinions are not well received by the hard-core old mentalities, the old business establishment who’s been doing business the same way since forever:

We also invented and open-sourced a computer-programming framework called Ruby on Rails that powers much of the Web 2.0 world.

While the old business establishment probably does not understand much of this (open-sourced, framework, Ruby on Rails, Web 2.0 ?), this sentence is clearly typical of the arrogance which 37signals have often been accused. And it’s totally true, they are arrogant! Pretending that Ruby on Rails powers the Web 2.0 era is a little bit bold, and they certainly think a lot of themselves! Ruby on Rails have been a contributor to Web 2.0 as many other concepts and technologies were. But the Web 2.0 is certainly not only powered by Ruby on Rails. In fact, there are probably more PHP “Web 2.0″ web sites then anything else…

But anyway, it’s just a simple example of their arrogance, and I totally like it. I prefer opinionated people over conformist boring folks. You don’t move forward with conformity, you don’t make progress by listening to the old same stories over and over again. You succeed by becoming an artist, by trying new things, by focusing on your success, not your failures, by being opinionated and believing in what you are doing.

So I hope to find a bit of time this week-end to read the book! Maybe when the kids are asleep ?