Rework

Are you doing work that matters or are you just doing what you think you should be doing? Sinking too much time into something that you should have quit working on weeks ago is an easy trap to fall into. Avoid it by asking yourself some simple questions:Why are you doing this?What problem are you solving?Is this actually useful?Are you adding value?Will this change behavior?Is there an easier way?What could you be doing instead?Is it really worth it?Show Notes01:57 - Why are we likely to continue with an investment even if it would be rational to give it up? (The Decision Lab)03:29 - Scope hammering (Shape Up)10:01 - Live preview of "My Side" (@jasonfried on Twitter)16:52 - Getting Real

Simply describing your pitch can cause the illusion of agreement. Everyone may have a completely different idea of what you're talking about. Try sketching it out, hum the melody you want to create, or, better yet, start building the thing. Removing these levels of abstraction ensures everyone is on the same page.Show Notes00:34 - Getting Real02:31 - Agile software development (Wikipedia)05:07 - Bubble Up09:45 - Shaping the work (Shape Up)13:46 - NEW: Refined Home Screen, Participation Types, and More16:40 - Kanban (Wikipedia)

If you had to launch your thing in just two weeks what would you cut out? Put off anything you don't absolutely need for launch. You can always build that stuff later when you have more information. It's best to just get it out there!Show Notes05:06 - The Screener07:22 - HEY World

Henry Ford turned wood scraps from Model T production into charcoal. That company is now called Kingsford and it's the leading manufacturer of charcoal in America. 37signals was a small web design firm before it started selling the project management tool it made to communicate with clients. That's now called Basecamp. No matter what you make, you're always making something else as well and there's probably a market for that too!Show Notes00:30 - 37signals01:04 - Basecamp02:45 - Software as a service (Wikipedia)04:41 - Defensive Design for the Web: How to Improve Error Messages, Help, Forms, and Other Crisis Points - Matthew Linderman, Jason Fried (Amazon)05:25 - Getting Real05:47 - Ta-da List07:38 - Books by Basecamp10:27 - Rework - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson (Bookshop.org)10:48 - Shape Up - Ryan Singer12:33 - Ruby on Rails13:18 - Web Interface Design Tip: The Yellow Fade Technique (Signal vs Noise)21:33 - Campfire

Any photographer will tell you it doesn't really matter what camera you use if you know how to take a good picture. So often, businesses obsess over getting a fancy office, the best software or breakroom snacks, when they really should be focusing on getting customers and making money. It doesn't matter what gear you have as long as you know what you're doing.Show Notes01:45 - Leica02:42 - Malcom Gladwell Explains What Everyone Gets Wrong About His Famous '10,000 Hour Rule' (Business Insider)02:59 - Start at the Epicenter (rework.fm)04:04 - PHP04:37 - Ruby05:11 - TextMate06:41 - Jason Fried (Hey World)06:44 - I bought a sauna (Jason Fried - Hey World)08:47 - Fuji Film08:47 - Canon09:12 - Barnes & Noble12:31 - 37signals19:45 - Maverick - Ricardo Semler (Amazon)19:53 - Semco Style Institute20:10 - Several Short Sentences about Writing - Verlyn Klinkenborg (Bookshop.org)20:25 - Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders - L. David Marquet (Bookshop.org)21:2

A lot of companies focus on chasing hot trends or new technology. That's all fine and good, but the core of your business should be built around the things that people will always want. In the case of Basecamp, that means speed, simplicity, and great customer service. For a company like Amazon, it means focusing on fast delivery and easy returns. Customers are going to want these things now and 10 years from now.Show Notes11:54 - Ruby on Rails15:31 - Turbo15:35 - Hotwire20:04 - Automatic Check-ins21:52 - "My Customers Would Have Asked For a Faster Horse" (Quote Investigator)23:02 - The Tyranny of Metrics - Jerry Z. Muller (Bookshop.org)

When things aren't working, it's human nature to throw more at the problem. More money, more people, more time. However, this usually ends up making the problem bigger. So, do less! Reframe the problem in such a way that it can be solved with fewer people, less money, and without endlessly pushing back deadlines.Show Notes00:50 - The path to Basecamp 4 (HEY World - Jason Fried)03:09 - 10x Developer (Techopedia)06:52 - Tesla11:02 - Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renée a. Mauborgne (Bookshop.org)13:49 - Setting the appetite (Shape Up)

Everyone has more ideas than they can realistically fit in a product. A good museum doesn't just throw everything in its collection up on the walls. There's a curation process. Someone says, "no." It's in making these edits that the real product comes out, so embrace it!Show Notes02:32 - Shape Up02:37 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)07:36 - Stick it to an email (HEY)10:41 - Big Design Up Front (Wikipedia)11:27 - Ruby on Rails14:48 - Gantt chart (Wikipedia)17:17 - Highrise17:52 - Know Your Team20:03 - We Work Remotely20:32 - Sortfolio

Basecamp was in Miami last week. I sat down with Jason and David to talk about why we were there, the importance of meeting colleagues in person, and investing in culture.

It's so easy to punt on something; to say, "let's wait until we have enough information to make the perfect decision." Perfect decisions don't exist, putting things off makes them pile up, and you'll end up getting absolutely nowhere. Very few decisions are set in stone. So, make calls as quickly as possible. Don't wait around for the perfect answer.Show Notes06:33 - Disagree and commit (Wikipedia)07:37 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)15:13 - HEY World18:19 - Performance indicator (Wikipedia)18:29 - The Tyranny of Metrics - Jerry Z. Muller19:14 - Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky20:41 - Gary Vaynerchuk20:51 - What's the ROI of your mother (garyvaynerchuk.com)

It's incredibly easy to focus too much on the little details of what you're building. You can spend hours and hours on something that will rarely ship with the final product. And, details are important! But, early on is not the time to worry about them. Focus on the basics first and worry about the specifics later.Show Notes02:14 - Hill Charts (Basecamp)03:02 - Fat marker sketches (Shape Up)07:17 - On the Origin of the iPhone (Daring Fireball)10:21 - "Getting Real" design tip: Just say no to Lorem Ipsum (Signal vs Noise)12:15 - Why are we likely to continue with an investment even if it would be rational to give it up? (The Decision Lab)12:16 - Why do we value items more if they belong to us? (The Decision Lab)13:12 - Test-driven development (Wikipedia)18:31 - basecamp.com/customers

When starting something new, you can work on the stuff you could do, the stuff you want to do, and the stuff you have to do. It's the stuff you have to do is where you should begin. To find that epicenter ask yourself, "if I took this one thing away, would what I'm selling still exist."Show Notes06:07 - Highrise08:23 - Salesforce15:32 - Is Your Product a 'Vitamin' or 'Painkiller?' - Entrepreneur16:12 - The Screener

You can't do everything you want to do and do it well. You just don't have the time, resources, people, etc., so you're going to have to cut some things. But, this isn't a bad thing at all! As with any other early constraints, embrace the editing process. Your product will be better off for it!Show Notes02:08 - tilted05:56 - Jonas Downey06:31 - Ryan Singer06:33 - Matthew Linderman (Matt Ruby)08:49 - The HEY Cover Art Gallery10:50 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)15:28 - A Review Of The Minimum Viable Product Approach (Forbes)17:09 - HEY Features17:23 - The Screener19:04 - Getting Real (YouTube)21:13 - The "Building of Basecamp" Workshop (37signals)

When you're just starting off you're going to be surrounded by constraints. You probably won't have enough time to do everything you want to do. You probably don't have enough people or money either. Don't worry! These are good things! It's when you're boxed in that you're forced to make tough decisions on what to do and what not to do. This results in a clearer, more streamlined product. Embrace those constraints!Show Notes04:06 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)08:23 - Ruby on Rails11:09 - SharePoint11:12 - Microsoft Project12:55 - Backpack12:57 - Campfire13:00 - Highrise16:31 - Duke Nukem Forever (Wikipedia)17:00 - Doom (Wikipedia)18:24 - Shape Up

Businesses can get weighed down by things like excess staff, countless meetings, long-term contracts, etc. The more mass they take on the harder it is change direction. Being able to change direction, to change your mind, is essential to building a successful company.Show Notes07:20 - Newton's laws of motion (Wikipedia)20:34 - Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders - L. David Marquet (Bookshop.org)21:35 - Hire managers of one (Signal v. Noise)

A lot of people start businesses with the hope that they'll be able to sell it quickly for a huge pile of money. While this might happen sometimes, it's extremely rare and even worse, the businesses created with this goal sacrifice so much just for the chance to sell. They sacrifice their customers, their employees, their product quality... You get the idea. It's like building a house that only looks good in pictures, but you certainly wouldn't want to live in it.Show Notes03:10  - The Imbox: It's not a typo17:38 - Basecamp 3 Uptime22:04 - Mojito island is a mirage (Signal v. Noise)23:21 - Why 37signals Refocused on a Single Product: Basecamp (Inc.)23:49 - Groundhog Day (IMDb)25:52 - Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Bookshop.org)

Last episode of the year and we're talking about startups. The new dry cleaner down the street doesn't call itself a startup. The pizza place on the corner doesn't call itself a startup. They're new businesses, that's all! So, what's so special about your tech company that you need a fancy word for it? Startups make you think of unlimited growth, huge investments, no expenses to worry about. This mindset can be unhealthy and detrimental to your new business.Show Notes02:57 - Request for Proposal (Investopedia)10:02 - Greater fool theory (Wikipedia)15:57 - R.I.P. Good Times (Sequoia Capital)23:00 - Hotwire

Before you start your great new business you'll NEED to hire some people, raise some money, rent an office, buy some ads, etc. etc. OF COURSE YOU DON'T. These are all just the trappings entrepreneurs tell themselves they need, when in reality, all you need is to start making something.Show Notes00:03 - Budweiser Wassup Commercial (YouTube)01:28 - Dungeons & Dragons05:34 - Coudal Partners07:36 - Minimum Viable Product (Wikipedia)09:00 - Gumroad09:03 - Stripe09:22 - Squarespace09:24 - Mailchimp17:33 - Basecamp Merch23:07 - Fingerspitzengefühl (Wikipedia)

Taking outside money to start your business may seem like a good idea, but there are a ton of strings attached... You give up control. Cashing out becomes the #1 priority. It's addictive. It's usually a bad deal. Customers become less important than investors... You get the idea. Outside money should never be plan A.Show Notes03:15 - How WhatsApp Makes Money (Investopedia)13:28 - 37signals changing name to Basecamp, shedding products (Chicago Tribune)22:40 - The deal Jeff Bezos got on Basecamp (Signal v. Noise)

Last episode we discussed how important it is to stand for something and you'd think writing your values down in a mission statement would be a great way to let people know exactly what you stand for. Well, you'd be wrong. Mission statements are almost always vapid, boring, platitudes that end up saying nothing at all. Even worse, they often turn people away entirely!Show Notes00:11 - Lex Fridman (YouTube)02:38 - The Soup Nazi - Seinfeld (Wikipedia)04:18 - 37signals manifesto05:08 - 1981 FedEx commercial (YouTube)05:17 - About Us (FedEx)05:45 - Values (Basecamp Employee Handbook)10:04 - Elevator pitch (Wikipedia)12:17 - About Us (Enterprise)15:41 - Nudge Nudge Wink Wink - Monty Python (YouTube)19:56 - What's the point of a Reservation - Seinfeld (YouTube)