REWORK

Having a calendar peppered with meetings or other commitments is horrible for productivity. Most people need at least a few hours or even days of completely uninterrupted alone time in order to do their best work. On this episode Jason and David give some strategies for creating the empty space you need to be productive.

Show Notes

• 14:56 - Slack
• 16:25 - Automatic Check-ins: Keep everyone in the know (Basecamp)

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 Notes

• 01:57 - 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 Notes

• 00:34 - Getting Real
• 02:31 - Agile software development (Wikipedia)
• 05:07 - Bubble Up
• 09:45 - Shaping the work (Shape Up)
• 13:46 - NEW: Refined Home Screen, Participation Types, and More
• 16:40 - 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 Notes

• 05:06 - The Screener
• 07:22 - 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 Notes

• 00:30 - 37signals
• 01:04 - Basecamp
• 02:45 - 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 Real
• 05:47 - Ta-da List
• 07:38 - Books by Basecamp
• 10:27 - Rework - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson (Bookshop.org)
• 10:48 - Shape Up - Ryan Singer
• 12:33 - Ruby on Rails
• 13:18 - 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 Notes

• 01:45 - Leica
• 02:42 - 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 - PHP
• 04:37 - Ruby
• 05:11 - TextMate
• 06:41 - Jason Fried (Hey World)
• 06:44 - I bought a sauna (Jason Fried - Hey World)
• 08:47 - Fuji Film
• 08:47 - Canon
• 09:12 - Barnes & Noble
• 12:31 - 37signals
• 19:45 - Maverick - Ricardo Semler (Amazon)
• 19:53 - Semco Style Institute
• 20:10 - 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)
• 21:27 - Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is - Donald C. Gause, Gerald M. Weinberg (Amazon)
• 22:23 - The Manual: A Philosopher's Guide to Life - Epictetus (Bookshop.org)

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 Notes

• 11:54 - Ruby on Rails
• 15:31 - Turbo
• 15:35 - Hotwire
• 20:04 - Automatic Check-ins
• 21:52 - "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 Notes

• 00:50 - The path to Basecamp 4 (HEY World - Jason Fried)
• 03:09 - 10x Developer (Techopedia)
• 06:52 - Tesla
• 11:02 - 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 Notes

• 02:32 - Shape Up
• 02:37 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)
• 07:36 - Stick it to an email (HEY)
• 10:41 - Big Design Up Front (Wikipedia)
• 11:27 - Ruby on Rails
• 14:48 - Gantt chart (Wikipedia)
• 17:17 - Highrise
• 17:52 - Know Your Team
• 20:03 - We Work Remotely
• 20:32 - 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.