Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals • Hacker News Board

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#11

Post by unalone » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 8:40 PM UTC

newmediaclay wrote: post #3

I'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…

I think that the company succeeds for the same reason why their philosophy does: they are completely honest about what they do. When they say you're getting a project management system, that's exactly what you get. When they're asked about how they work, they answer it honestly. It's refreshing because they do exactly what they want to do and it works for them.

There are some things I don't like about them - namely, the splash page you get for their products - but there's no denying that they've made a set of utterly amazing products and that their blog is possibly the most interesting one I'm subscribed to right now.

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#12

Post by gruseom » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 9:11 PM UTC

unalone wrote: post #10

aschobel wrote: post #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 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.

Look at the sites that have succeeded the most

Is search not a hard problem?

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#13

Post by aschobel » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 9:15 PM UTC

unalone wrote: post #10

aschobel wrote: post #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 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.

It also depends on what kind of hard problems you are tackling.

YouTube solved the video codec Gordian knot, Google did the same with relevant search. Not easy problems, but they have huge benefits.

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#14

Post by fendale » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 9:24 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #2

Wow, 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 specif…

Here here - In our project, its packed with generic features - most of them haven't be used ever and were released ages ago. Often they really complicate the application with lookup tables and weird logic that never sees the light of day, 'just incase'!

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#15

Post by gnaritas » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 9:25 PM UTC

aschobel wrote: post #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 o…

With $$ and a nice working environment!

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#16

Post by pc » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 9:51 PM UTC

fendale wrote: post #14

edw519 wrote: post #2

Wow, 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 specif…

Here here - In our project, its packed with generic features - most of them haven't be used ever and were released ages ago. Often they really complicate the application with lookup tables and weird logic that never sees the light of day, 'just incase'!

I think you mean "Hear, hear".

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#17

Post by run4yourlives » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 9:59 PM UTC

gruseom wrote: post #12

unalone wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Look at the sites that have succeeded the most Is search not a hard problem?

Look at where every other company that tried search - besides google - is now though.

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#18

Post by edw519 » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 11:02 PM UTC

fendale wrote: post #14

edw519 wrote: post #2

Wow, 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 specif…

Here here - In our project, its packed with generic features - most of them haven't be used ever and were released ages ago. Often they really complicate the application with lookup tables and weird logic that never sees the light of day, 'just incase'!

Good example but not what I was referring to.

I just finished an app with 51 separate modules, every one hard coded in infinite detail, and much of the code duplicated, 4000 LOC in all. Crazy, right? I used to think so, too. I could have written one very flexible parameter driven module in a few hundred LOC.

But guess what? Even though I bitched and moaned the whole time I wrote the monster, I was able to refactor and "genericize" it in one day. Start to finish time was much shorter than if I had written the flexible module first (that is, if I had ever finished).

This was a non-intuitive lesson for me. Write the specific case and extend later. I always used to try to write the most comprehensive "able to do anything" code until I realized that sometimes, the long way around is actually quicker.

Thanks again Jason, for #3.

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#19

Post by edw519 » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 11:05 PM UTC

aschobel wrote: post #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 o…

How do you attract top talent if you are only solving easy things?

A hard problem is just a bunch of easy problems tangled up together.

Re: Jason Fried - 10 Things We've Learned at 37Signals

#20

Post by njharman » Wed, Sep 17, 2008, 11:09 PM UTC

> Not afraid that people will take their ideas and build a restaurant right beside of them.

Really? Then how come all the bitcheness around HuddleChat How disingenuous. (the lesson is correct, too bad they don't live by it)

I quote "We're flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product, we're just disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout," said 37Signals founder Jason Fried.

I know HN is suppose to be a cuddlefest where only the "right kind" of people are but I really think you guys need a devil's advocate post once in awhile to shine some reality on your rampant fanboyism.