[On Writing] Gym Jones, Moosejaw, Amazon

Gym Jones
The Colonel writes: “Simply amazing. These are the guys that trained the cast of 300… brutally.

Tasty bits:

Gym Jones is not a cozy place. There’s no AC, no comfortable spot to sit and there are no mirrors. Stressors are intentionally designed to cause discomfort and apprehension. Effort and pain may not be avoided. Physical and psychological breakdowns occur…

Gym Jones is private and isolated from the modern fitness ideal precisely because we believe that attitude to be poison. We believe that a proper training facility is separated from the complacency of the general public, and has its own set of rules and values. We believe that nothing of value maybe acquired by simply going through the motions; real fitness is earned…

From its birth in December 2003 Gym Jones has followed the Fight Club model of “free to all” though not all are invited. Those who are do not pay. No one may buy their way in or buy anything associated with the project. The original model will exist in a back room under my guidance whether we open other doors to the public or not.

Last but not least, a photo of the original gym.”

Moosejaw
Caryn Rose writes: “Check out the text in this order status update. What a refreshing change from the normal ‘DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL’ bs. All of this merchant’s communications have the same spirit and tone. I’ll definitely remember them, and order from them again.”

The email:

From: Moosejaw
Subject: Moosejaw Order Status Update for Order

Thanks again for placing such a fantastic order at Moosejaw.com!

Your Order Tracking and Order Summary Information is below. We recommend printing this information and mounting it into a mahogany frame for a foyer or living room. If you don’t have a printer they’re very easy to steal from a friend and bring back later, just something to keep in mind…

If you have any questions about your order please reply to this email or call us at 877.Moosejaw (877.666.7352) or at 248.246.4000. When you’re bored please check out our Daily Remark. Today’s remark is especially riveting. Now I’ll stop bothering you.

Love the Madness.

Moosejaw

Amazon
Sean Abrahams writes: “In the attached screenshot (from Review Comments), Amazon.com presents us with a confusing dialog.

add to

Do I what? Agree it doesn’t add to the discussion? Or, disagree and think that it does add to the discussion?”

Have an interesting link, story, or screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Contact svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

Matt Linderman wrote this on Sep 19 2007 There are 15 comments.

dave rau

on 19 Sep 07

The Moosejaw email is excellent; I love coming across that kind of personality and flavor in digital.

One thing I really like about running a small business is the ability to write personal emails to every customer. We recently hit 1,000 orders; in less than two years, I guess that’s good considering we’ve done zero advertising. But I’m hoping things don’t get so big that we lose the ability to write personal emails. Heck, we don’t even use auto responders; each email is written by Josh or myself.

How have you guys managed to keep customer interaction personal with the success of all the 37 signals projects?

Tim

Moosejaw seems to have the same kind of customer support than CDBaby.com. Let me give you some extracts: the name associated with the email address being “CD Baby loves Tim”,

This is just a happy automated email to let you know a real person will email you as soon as your package is sent

later on followed by said real person’s email:

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, August 28th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year”. We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you once again,

Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby

That made my day but unfortunately, I don’t think big companies like Amazon et al. can be so jovial and light-spirited… (even if they were able to)

Mark Garrigan

Last spring when I learned of Gym Jones.. I spent an entire night reading their training logs and the rest of their website. It is exactly the way I’ve always wanted to work out. So with some inspiration from their website I made my own work out routine with what we had at our gym. They completely “get” today’s social fitness club. They hit the nail right on the head with what they say about the people who think they are getting in shape by continuing to do the same old “look at me in the mirror work out”. Gym Jones approach to working out is all about signal and has no time for noise. You earn your fitness, you don’t buy it.

Don Schenck

Working out—a passion of mine.

Since we can’t all join Gym Jones, I suggest an incredible but out-of-print book: You Gotta Want It by Dick Woit. This guy trained Gale Sayers, and if you think you are in shape, wait until you try his workouts. Killers.

Des Traynor

Any chance Basecamp could lose the A new message has been posted. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. feature :)

Anderson

Gym Jones sounds a lot like the boxing gym I go to. Hard work & lots of sweat born from some of the oddest drills I have ever done.

Brian Webb

Hey guys,

Just a quick word to let you know that I use your products… and believe in them enough… that I’ve added links to my blog. I will also be doing a post writeup soon. Keep up the great work!

Brian LOUD! Creative Group http://www.stickyboomerang.com (Blog) http://www.loudcreative.com (Site)

Spambot Wannabe

on 20 Sep 07

I see you guys just met my eager brother Brian Webb.

ian

The people who LIVE in Moosejaw Saskatchewan,are as friendly BTW. Worth visting.:-)

Mark

How is that Amazon prompt confusing? It’s simply asking if you think the post adds to the discussion. Must people be purposely obtuse?

Tor Løvskogen

Mark, it could be interpreted “Do you also think this does not add to the discussion?”.

brad

My (not so) little brother plays with the (Stanley Cup winning) Anaheim Ducks (I am still beaming with pride). I can tell you that the ideas mentioned on the Gym Jones web site certainly ring true for him. His work ethic has been the difference between him and most of the players around him that did not progress as far. His dedication to practicing and constantly tweaking his skills is what got him there. I think this for sure has a broader application…

Peter Cooper

Mark: Not obvious at all. I posted the same thing on Twitter a cpl months ago now. Simplify the statement to, say:

“1 person thinks jam is not good. Do you?”

1) Yes, I agree. Jam is not good! 2) Yes, I think jam is good!

The #1 interpretation of “Yes” seems like the logical one to me, since you’re agreeing with the “1 person thinks”.

Geof Harries

I was excited to read about Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on SVN as my in-laws live nearby, but alas, moosejaw.com is a store located further south. Oh well. The farmers will have their day.

on 21 Sep 07

@Tor and Peter: I have to disagree.

The statement is obviously intended as:

“This person thinks this comment does not add to the discussion. Do you think this comment adds to the discussion? Yes/No”

It’s asking for a positive or negative response to ‘add to the discussion’, it is not asking whether you agree to the person’s opinion.

[On Writing] Gym Jones, Moosejaw, Amazon

dave rau

Tim

Mark Garrigan

Don Schenck

Des Traynor

Anderson

Brian Webb

Spambot Wannabe

ian

Mark

Tor Løvskogen

brad

Peter Cooper

Geof Harries

Mark

This discussion is closed.

About Matt Linderman