Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
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Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
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Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#2Wow, there is so much wisdom here, I don't know where to start. So I'll just say that I have encountered almost every one of these situations at one point or another, and Jason is almost dead on.
The most important one for me is probably #3 "Get Rid of Abstractions". I learned this one the hard way. Now I just work on the problem at hand and worry about how to extend it later. It's a lot easier to generalize a specific case than to write something generalized in the first place. Could have saved me years.
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#3I'm a huge fan of 37 signals' products and company philosophy. I bet this presentation is going to be the total opposite of most people speaking at the conference - I mean who else is going to get up there and talk about "Planning is vastly overrated" and "Underdoing."
Most presenters are going to focus on all of the amazing features their products offer...however, 37 signals is still more successful than 95% of those other companies.
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#4I'm a huge fan of 37 signals' products and company philosophy. I bet this presentation is going to be the total opposite of most people speaking at the conference - I mean who else is going to get up there and talk about "Planning is vastly overrated" and "Underdoing." Most presenters are going to focus on all of the amazing features their products offer...however, 37 signals is still more successful than 95% of thos…
Was a highly dynamic and fast moving presentation. Was impressed with Jason's delivery. Definitely a rock star of Web 2.0 as the house was packed. He makes the ideas sound even better than they read on SvN and Getting Real.
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#5I'm a huge fan of 37 signals' products and company philosophy. I bet this presentation is going to be the total opposite of most people speaking at the conference - I mean who else is going to get up there and talk about "Planning is vastly overrated" and "Underdoing." Most presenters are going to focus on all of the amazing features their products offer...however, 37 signals is still more successful than 95% of thos…
Was a highly dynamic and fast moving presentation. Was impressed with Jason's delivery. Definitely a rock star of Web 2.0 as the house was packed. He makes the ideas sound even better than they read on SvN and Getting Real.
Which really makes me want to see the video. Anyone know if it's up anywhere?
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#6#6 is the one that resonates most strongly with me. in my last position there was one of these tiny-dog managers that'd pop in every 15 minutes or so and ask if something was done. at which point i'd spend five minutes explaining why it wasn't. he was the single biggest hindrance to my productivity. managers, don't be that guy. watch the trac task list if you must. don't harass the developers.
#3 - i take a little issue with this one, but not much. if it's straightforward to make something a little more flexible, the payoff is generally good. this depends on a few things: how sure are you that you'll be moving in that direction, how much work is it to add in the extra flex, how difficult will it be to connect up later?
it's worth thinking about, if only for a few minutes. the payoff could be huge, and even it's not, it's rarely wasted time.
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#7#11 (15?): Almost everybody is going to spell "37signals" wrong no matter how famous we get.
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#8#1 resonates most strongly with me right now. The feeling of accomplishment when you complete a project creates that sense of momentum and excitement going into the next one.
Like Jason, I've noticed that quality of work seemingly diminishes toward the end of a long project when people are motivated mostly to simply complete the project.
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#9"13. Give up on hard problems - there is nothing wrong with being lazy. There is an abundance of easy problems that need to be solved. The really hard problems are probably better left to your competitors. Solve a bunch of simple things. Most people’s problems are simple and you can probably solve 10 in a month over 1 in 10 months."
Hard problems are a lot more fun to solve. How do you attract top talent if you are only solving easy things?
Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals
#10"13. Give up on hard problems - there is nothing wrong with being lazy. There is an abundance of easy problems that need to be solved. The really hard problems are probably better left to your competitors. Solve a bunch of simple things. Most people’s problems are simple and you can probably solve 10 in a month over 1 in 10 months." Hard problems are a lot more fun to solve. How do you attract top talent if you are o…
They're more fun, BUT they result in more work being done for less of a benefit.
Look at the sites that have succeeded the most and you'll see that they all solve basic problems, and that's resulted in most of them making tons of money. More specialized sites are more fascinating, but they attract fewer people and tend to be much less successful in absolute terms.