My take was this: here's a company that is showcasing the fact that they are building products that people love, and most of them are not even in the same room. Look beyond the hardware religion bait and you will see different landscapes through the windows, different desk setups, and the personalities of individuals as opposed to gray cube walls.
Noah and Sam's setups are the only ones that stuck with me too. Noah's setup is nice because it allows you to code without worrying about switching windows and moving stuff around. It's optimized for speed. Sam's setup is awesome because I feel like I could focus in that room. It's zen, free of clutter, probably free of distractions, perfect to get in the zone.
Ideally I'd combine both... but just a small Macbook on a kitchen table as a setup is pretty uninspiring.
I think that's part of the statement. It's riffing on the "show your setup" post, but instead of focusing on the gear (something 37S have eschewed for a long time) they're focusing on the environment, and, by extension, the people. All the signaling is about peacefulness and happiness: look at my dog, look at my kids, look at my lovely pitcher of water.
It's effective in my opinion for a few reasons. One, it's personal/voyeuristic, which will make at least some people interested and also, if you have a positive response, connected to the fact that there are real people working on the big product they're about to launch. Making a company feel human and intimate is an important branding goal these days, and something they talk about a lot.
Second, as someone else mentioned, it emphasizes their "work-from-home" message. When I look at those desks, I see comfort. Every day is like staying home from work. Gee, it sure must be nice to work like that!
There's even a subtle power/wealth signal, I would argue, in DHH's setup and the fresh flowers on all the office desks.
I got the idea for having a small bunch of fresh flowers on everyones office desk from the restaurant world.
I always like sitting down to a table at a restaurant that has a small simple arrangement of fresh flowers. It's a great detail and it brings color and life to your immediate surroundings. Plus, nature is the greatest designer so there's no better influence.
We have the flowers switched out weekly. They're different each week and each desk has a different arrangement. We also have weekly arrangements in the kitchen, the lounge area, and in the front entrance.
For those in Chicago, I highly recommend the good people at http://asraigarden.com for this service. They take great care of us.
We also do this, but instead of flowers, we chose plants. Being a bit of a nature-geek myself, my desk is particularly green, but everyone who wants, has at least one desk-plant in our office:
I think it's a wonderful idea, and we do basically the same thing in our much smaller office (just one vase on the center table). When they're looking stale, we bring guests or interns to the flower shop to pick out the next arrangement.
edit: We go to A New Leaf in the Monadnock building a couple of blocks away from the office. Always a nice selection, changes frequently, and we can get a few beautiful stems for 5 or 6 dollars.
Save Noah, it's just an Apple Store. Sam's apartment/house looks great, though.