REWORK

Basecamp has cut back its reliance on Amazon and Google, but there's one area where it's tough to find alternatives to Big Tech: cloud services. Even so, there are ways to cut spending on this $3 million annual expense while keeping the company's apps running smoothly. In this episode, Blake Stoddard on Basecamp's Ops team talks about how he volunteered to look for savings on cloud services and really delivered—to the tune of over a half-million dollars.

Show Notes

Blake Stoddard on Twitter - 1:27

AWS Lambda - 4:45

The Reddit hug of death is also known as the Slashdot effect - 4:55

Maybe Roxane Gay can save us from our cord-cutting dystopia - 15:49

Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson sparked a national controversy this week when he posted a series of livid tweets about how his wife received a much lower credit limit than he did on their Apple Cards, despite applying with the same financial information. What began as a rant against opaque algorithms turned into a regulatory investigation and more. In this episode, Dr. Ruha Benjamin of Princeton University and entrepreneur Mara Zepeda, co-founder of the XXcelerate Fund and Zebras Unite, talk about how the tech and financial sectors perpetuate systemic inequalities and how to start repairing the damage—or building something more equitable and inclusive from the ground up.

Show Notes

Apple Card - 1:31

DHH's Twitter thread - 1:53

Steve Wozniak's response - 1:58

The New York Department of Financial Services' announcement of its investigation into Goldman Sachs - 2:11

"About the Apple Card" (Jamie Heinemeier Hansson) - 2:28

Ruha Benjamin's website | Twitter - 2:57

Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin - 2:59

University of Michigan article about the failures of the state's MiDAS system - 7:31

"Racial bias in a medical algorithm favors white patients over sicker black patients" (Washington Post) - 8:18

"Biased bots: Artificial-intelligence systems echo human prejudices" (Princeton University) - 12:40

"Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women" (Reuters) - 14:15

Ruha Benjamin's Resources - 15:29

Joy Buolamwini on Twitter - 16:52

"Atlanta Asks Google Whether It Targeted Black Homeless People" (NYT) - 17:40

Tuskegee Study, 1932-1972 (CDC) - 18:35

Atlantic article about J. Marion Sims and his experiments on enslaved women - 18:51

NYT article about China's use of facial recognition technology to oppress the Uighur minority - 20:10

"Somerville Bans Government Use Of Facial Recognition Tech" (WBUR) - 20:38

"Can you make AI fairer than a judge? Play our courtroom algorithm game" (MIT Technology Review) - 22:31

Jason Meller - 00:25

"What is SSL?" - 1:13

This is Outback Steakhouse's page for the Bloomin' Onion, which is categorized as an "Aussie-tizer." Yes, that's what Outback calls appetizers. I cannot un-know this fact and now I pass it to you. - 2:43

"At an Outback Steakhouse Franchise, Surveillance Blooms" (Wired) - 2:51

"Presto Launches Computer Vision Product for Real-Time Restaurant Operations Insights" (Presto press release) - 3:18

"The Employer-Surveillance State" (The Atlantic) - 3:40

Kolide - 5:45

Basecamp's security overview with a mention of Shipshape (PDF) - 20:54

"Introducing Netflix Stethoscope" (The Netflix Tech Blog) - 20:58

Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard - 2:57

Max Temkin is a Chicagoan and a co-creator of Cards Against Humanity - 4:01

Little Free Library - 4:04

Maverick by Ricardo Semler - 4:48

Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters by Warren Buffett - 5:27

Amazon's 2018 shareholder letter by Jeff Bezos - 5:38

Listen to our previous episodes about hiring a director of marketing, "In the Market for a Marketer" and "Meet Andy" - 13:02

Art19 - 1:02

The Distance - 1:09

Tweet from Kevin Finn to DHH / "Heal the Internet" - 1:15

Buzzsprout - 1:21

Video about Art19's new ad technology - 1:28

DHH's tweet about leaving Art19 ASAP - 3:23

Transistor - 3:52

Lex Friedman - 4:16

"Breaking: Two Top Stitcher Executives leave for Art19" (Hot Pod) - 10:58

California Consumer Privacy Act (Wikipedia) - 23:20

Justin Jackson - 40:24

Jon Buda - 40:34

The Good News Podcast, a show by Cards Against Humanity - 40:45

"Crafting Radio's Driveway Moments" (NPR) - 42:26

Sleep With Me podcast - 56:38

Justin Jackson's post on getting to $30K - 58:21

DHH's personal website - 1:02:27

"In the Market for a Marketer," our previous episode - 00:22

Andy Didorosi | Detroit Bus Co. - 00:50

"How Detroit ended up with the worst public transit" (Detroit Metro Times, 2014) - 1:45

"Baby Shark (doo doo do doo do doo), explained" (Vox) - 16:00

Jalopnik - 17:15

Andy's talk at the 2014 Adobe 99U Conference, "What Detroit Taught Me About Getting Things Done" - 19:04

"Eminem Opens a 'Mom's Spaghetti' Pop-Up in Detroit" (Vice, 2017) - 19:50

Small Giants - 20:24

"Hire When It Hurts," our previous episode about hiring - 00:57

"Farewell, Happy Camper," our episode about rebranding Basecamp - 1:51

A Signal v. Noise post by Jason about design challenges for job candidates - 4:26

Detroit Bus Co. - 11:17

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (IndieBound.org) - 00:40

Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games by Jon Peterson (IndieBound.org) - 1:14

"Independent Women," our previous podcast's episode about Women & Children First bookstore - 1:31

"Heal the Internet," our episode where David Heinemeier Hansson endorsed IndieBound - 2:00

Danny Caine's website - 2:37

The Raven Book Store's website | Twitter | Instagram - 2:40

The Raven's viral Twitter thread from April 2019 - 6:46

"Amazon will pay $0 in taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018" (Yahoo Finance) - 10:10

Books Are Magic - 11:00

Caitlin Doughty - 13:17

"Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale sequel escapes from tight secrecy" (The Guardian) - 14:46

The Raven's Twitter thread about the embargo on The Testaments - 16:36

The huge demand for Michelle Obama's memoir affected printing capacity for Basecamp cofounders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson's book, which came out in the fall 2018. We covered those issues in this episode - 19:19

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat - 19:28

The Raven's Twitter thread on bestsellers - 20:23

Quoth the Raven newsletter - 20:30

Paradise Cafe Cookbook by Missy McCoy - 21:24

El Dorado Freddy's, Danny Caine's forthcoming book of poetry - 23:38

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead - 24:38

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann - 25:18

The Instructions by Adam Levin - 26:33

Wailin's husband read William Gass' The Tunnel so you don't have to - 28:22

DHH on Twitter - 00:53

Matt Mullenweg's website | Twitter - 00:57

The Twitter conversation that started the debate - 1:07

WordPress.org - 1:40

Automattic website - 1:45

Automattic's Series D funding announcement - 1:54

Matt Mullenweg's interview with TechCrunch - 3:30

"Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Sleep Is Our Competition" (Fast Company) - 9:19

A 2005 demo by DHH on creating a blog engine in 15 minutes - 16:49

"The deal Jeff Bezos got on Basecamp" (Signal v. Noise) - 24:16

Benevolent dictator for life (Wikipedia) - 46:21

DHH on the Django Chat podcast - 46:37

"Richard Stallman resigns from MIT over Epstein comments" (The Verge) - 47:15

Automattic Acquires Tumblr from Verizon - 56:17

Mike Davidson's blog post on Superhuman, "Superhuman is Spying on You" - 00:13

Mike Davidson's tweet about Superhuman - 00:35

"Marking the end of pixel trackers in Basecamp emails" and "Let's stop shaking people down for their email addresses" (Signal v. Noise) - 00:57

"You can heal the internet" (Signal v. Noise) - 1:18

The EU's official website about GDPR - 11:00

"California Passes Sweeping Law to Protect Online Privacy" (New York Times) - 11:08

Basecamp stopped reimbursing employees for Uber rides in 2017. DHH elaborates on that decision in our episode "Take A Stand" - 15:26

IndieBound - 16:37

DuckDuckGo - 17:45

"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the 'future is private'" (The Verge) - 21:46

"Facebook Has Watched You Browse The Web For Years. And No, 'Clear History' Won't Really Stop It" (BuzzFeed News) - 22:15

Our episode on becoming 100% Facebook Free - 22:28

"Mister Gotcha," a four-panel cartoon by Matt Bors - 22:55

A lavina is an avalanche - 26:00

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's page about the Equifax data breach - 29:21

"Apple apologizes for listening to Siri conversations" (CNBC) - 30:30