Less is Less with Jason Fried

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Most of you know who Jason Fried is – the founder of 37Signals and the author of several books, including Rework, his most recent publication.

He’s on shmula.com to answer your questions – on Lean Thinking, Design, Less is Less, Customer Development, and other principles he lives by and encourages others to consider in his book Rework.

Similar to other interviews we’ve held on shmula.com ^{[1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15]}, please ask your question in the comment section below.  I’ll publish his responses to your questions in succeeding blog posts.  I’ll close the comment section on March 5, 2010.

Thank you, Jason.

To the readers: Ask away . . .

List of Essays in Rework

First

• The new reality

Takedowns

• Ignore the real world
• Learning from mistakes is overrated
• Planning is guessing
• Why grow?
• Workaholism
• Enough with “entrepreneurs”

Go

• Make a dent in the universe
• Scratch your own itch
• Start making something
• No time is no excuse
• Draw a line in the sand
• Mission statement impossible
• Outside money is Plan Z
• You need less than you think
• Start a business, not a start-up
• Building to flip is building to flop
• Less mass

Progress

• Embrace constraints
• Build half, not half-ass
• Start at the epicenter
• Ignore the details early on
• Making the call is making progress
• Be a curator
• Throw less at the problem
• Focus on what won’t change
• Tone is in your fingers
• Sell your by-products
• Launch now

Productivity

• Illusions of agreement
• Reasons to quit
• Interruption is the enemy of productivity
• Meetings are toxic
• Good enough is fine
• Quick wins
• Don’t be a hero
• Go to sleep
• Your estimates suck
• Long lists don’t get done
• Make tiny decisions

Competitors

• Don’t copy
• Decommoditize your product
• Pick a fight
• Underdo your competition
• Who cares what they’re doing?

Evolution

• Say no by default
• Let your customers outgrow you
• Don’t confuse enthusiasm with priority
• Be at-home good
• Don’t write it down

Promotion

• Welcome obscurity
• Build an audience
• Out-teach your competition
• Emulate chefs
• Go behind the scenes
• Nobody likes plastic flowers
• Press releases are spam
• Forget about the Wall Street Journal
• Drug dealers get it right
• Marketing is not a department
• The myth of the overnight sensation

Hiring

• Do it yourself first
• Hire when it hurts
• Pass on great people
• Strangers at a cocktail party
• Resumes are ridiculous
• Years of irrelevance
• Forget about formal education
• Everybody works
• Hire managers of one
• Hire great writers
• The best are everywhere
• Test-drive employees

Damage control

• Own your bad news
• Speed changes everything
• How to say you’re sorry
• Put everyone on the front lines
• Take a deep breath

Culture

• You don’t create a culture
• Decisions are temporary
• Skip the rock stars
• They’re not thirteen
• Send people home at 5:00
• Don’t scar on the first cut
• Sound like you
• Four-letter words
• ASAP is poison

Conclusion

• Inspiration is perishable

Resources

• About 37signals
• 37signals products

Early Reviews of Rework by Jason Fried

“If given a choice between investing in someone who has read REWORK or has an MBA, I’m investing in REWORK every time. A must read for every entrepreneur.” -Mark Cuban, co-founder HDNet, owner of the Dallas Mavericks

“This book will make you uncomfortable.

Depending on what you do all day, it might make you extremely uncomfortable.

That’s a very good thing, because you deserve it. We all do.

Jason and David have broken all the rules and won. Again and again they’ve demonstrated that the regular way isn’t necessarily the right way. They just don’t say it, they do it. And they do it better than just about anyone has any right to expect.

This book is short, fast, sharp and ready to make a difference. It takes no prisoners, spares no quarter and gives you no place to hide, all at the same time.

There, my review is almost as long as the first chapter of the book. I can’t imagine what possible excuse you can dream up for not buying this book for every single person you work with, right now.

Stop reading the review. Buy the book.” -Seth Godin

“The wisdom in these pages is edgy yet simple, straightforward, and proven. Read this book multiple times to help give you the courage you need to get out there and make something great.” -Tony Hsieh, CEO, of Zappos.com

“The clarity, even genius, of REWORK actually brought me to near-tears on several occasions.” -Tom Peters, New York Times bestselling author of IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE

“There’s no jargon or filler here — just hundreds of brilliantly simple rules for success. REWORK is required reading for anyone tired of business platitudes.” -Chris Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of THE LONG TAIL

“The authors live by the credo ‘keep it simple, stupid’ and REWORK possesses the same intelligence — and irreverence — of that simple adage.” -John Maeda, President RISD, author of THE LAWS OF SIMPLICITY

“The brilliance of REWORK is that it inspires you to rethink everything you thought you knew about strategy, customers, and getting things done.” -William C. Taylor, founder FAST COMPANY magazine

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