Every year on March 9th, as SXSW is getting started, I like to mark the anniversary of this blog. This time it’s the 10th year.

“My second post back in 2002”:http://www.manton.org/2002/03/ernest_kim_and_jason.html was about a panel run by 37signals. I wrote:

“Ernest and Jason really get it — I hope they inspire some designers to think about web sites in a new way, and finally start focusing on usability and page load time and cut the fancy graphics, roll-overs, and animations.”

This was a couple years before they reinvented themselves as a software company with Basecamp. As the “new Basecamp launches this week”:http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3129-launch-the-all-new-basecamp, it’s fascinating to think back on how far 37signals has come. The web is bigger now and more complex. Subscription web apps are everywhere. But I think the focus on performance that drove Jason Fried and his original co-founders to promote simple design in that SXSW panel a decade ago is still very much at the heart of what 37signals does.