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Hardcover
279 pages
ISBN 9780307463746 Published March 2010
Crown Business
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Posted April 9, 2010 6:08 p.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ Nick Summers delivered a great review of Rework for Newsweek. It's an even-handed take not only of the book, but also the company its authors founded and lead—37signals. My favorite line in the article is actually a criticism of the authors: "They can sound like the business equivalent of kids in Clash T shirts, sneering at phony acts who have sold out."
We're all big fans of the book here, possibly because most of us are or were the equivalent of those "kids in Clash T shirts" in some way, so we can relate to the sentiment. But, also, because it's just a damn fine book that is as accessible as any you'll come across and doesn't pretend to be something it's not. The metaphor Summers ends the article with nails it:
It all comes down to one of its many management rules: emulate chefs. Great ones, like Julia Child and Mario Batali, share everything they know, from recipes to technique. Rework, write Fried and Heinemeier Hansson, is their cookbook.
➻ Jason Fried described himself in his first article for Inc. Magazine: "I think of myself as wildly ambitious and unapologetically lazy." (I don't know if that's all that different from the "kids in a Clash T shirt," actually.) He also offers this sage advice:
Instead of spending your time worrying about what could, might, or may happen, spend your time on what matters now. Are your customers thrilled with your service today? Is your inbox flooded with word-of-mouth referrals today? Do your employees love their jobs today? Can people find what they're looking for on your website today?
➻ One of my favorite articles this week was Edan Lepucki's Ceasing to Exist: Three Months in the Social Media Detox Ward in The Millions. After kicking an addiction to social media in an attempt to concentrate on writing for a few months, she developed a very different point of view of the medium:
These days, I feel no pull whatsoever toward Twitter, despite the number of fabulous people there. In my mind, it’s a crowded elevator where everyone’s talking over one another. They’re all saying interesting things, but who can keep track?
I couldn't agree more with those words, but I think Carolyn Kellogg is right to consider the following (especially for business book authors):
On the one hand, a writer should walk away from anything that keeps them from writing, be it alcohol, a lousy boyfriend or the insta-communication social networking maw of Twitter. On the other hand, I wonder whether it's particularly vital for new writers to stay connected online.
➻ John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison, authors of The Power of Pull, ask Are All Employees Knowledge Workers? The article ends with some helpful questions to ask yourself:
What about your own role? Does it have creative aspects that are less than fully recognized or acknowledged? In what ways could your employer help you develop the creative aspects of your job? Where would you draw the line in your company between creative talent and the rest of the workforce?
➻ Is your copy of Seth Godin's Linchpin missing the index? So is every other copy. Lucky for us, making indexes is a hobby of Groundswell author Josh Bernoff. He's provided the missing index.
➻ The prize for the best headline of the week goes to Publishers Weekly for Calvin Reid's article, Fat Vampires, Sexy Werewolves and the Future of Teen Reading.
➻ Nicholas Carr is "not under any illusion that progress gives a damn about what [he] want[s],” which is what makes his take on the iPad one of my favorites. He also wrote recently about the iPad as the post book-book, saying "As a text delivery system, the iPad is perfectly suited to readers who don't read anymore."
➻ "Yellow is the color of my true love's crossbow."
The Illustration of Rework
Posted March 24, 2010 5:25 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Rohde discusses the process of bringing it all together in a guest post on the Signals vs. Noise blog today. One of the great things about the process is that they used the 37signals software the authors' company developed (most notably Basecamp) to share and organize the creative work. (It is something we do here at 8cr as well—for everything from ChangeThis and our web ads, to In the Books and our biggest project ever, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.)
Organizing creative work is hard.* Documenting how they've accomplished what they have in relatively short time is really helpful. I highly suggest closely reading the full post, but here's where it ends up:
It’s amazing what we were able to produce in just 16 weeks, all while I worked nights and weekends and had a baby in the middle of the project. Our constant communications and use of Basecamp really made the difference.
Amazing, indeed. You can read more about how they managed the process in a previous post from Rohde, or check out the illustrations as a photo set on flickr. Or, if you'd like to learn more about the book, check out the author's ChangeThis manifesto or Jack's Jack Covert Selects review. You won't get the illustrative genius of Mr. Rohde in either of those last two links, but you'll get an idea of the authors' great work—and why you'll want to buy many, many copies of the book.
*You can look forward to the release of Scott Belsky's Making Ideas Happen next month to help with this, though.
Jack Covert Selects - Rework
Posted March 11, 2010 9:21 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
I’m usually the first responder to new books that come in the office, but this book created much internal excitement even before I got my hands on it. The galley that is currently on my desk is quite beat up already from use. My conclusion after reading it is: if you are an aspiring business book author and wonder what a good business book looks like, Rework is the example to study.
The book offers short, direct chapters written by two guys who have actually walked the walk. Fried and Hansson created and run a company called 37signals, supplier of Highrise, Basecamp and Backpack open source software that we at 800-CEO-READ use everyday. The products they created stemmed from their own company’s needs. By creating their own tools, they could then envision a company as they wanted it to be—with no constraints. 37Signals is not large; in fact, it is intentionally small. Small, comfortable, and profitable.
The insight Fried and Hansson share in Rework, written in contemporary language that is both accessible and exciting, is wisdom that took me forty years to learn. I cannot over-emphasize its value. Here is an example from the section on hiring.
Hire when it hurts
Don’t hire for pleasure; hire to kill pain. Always ask yourself, What if we don’t hire anyone? Is that extra work that’s burdening us really necessary? Can we solve the problem with a slice of software or a change of practice instead? What if we just don’t do it?
Similarly, if you lose someone, don’t replace him immediately. See how long you can get by without that person and that position. You’ll often discover you don’t need as many people as you think.
Many of us try to strategize far out into the future. And while there is a time for that, what I appreciate about Rework is its pragmatic nature, its emphasis on the problem at hand. This is an important book for businesspeople. Rework is practical, offering logical ideas that are instantly applicable to the solo entrepreneur, the team leader, or the company owner.
Friday Links
Posted Feb. 26, 2010 11:34 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
I've been in a knock-down, drag-em-out brawl with the Wisconsin Winter and, at the moment, I'm losing. I've even lost my voice in the fight, but I can still type, which is good because we have two weeks worth of links to catch up on.
➻ Having trouble focusing on your writing? Dr. Wicked gives you an ultimatum: Write or Die. I found about it in a great review of that software and Freedom from PW's Elizabeth Bluemle.
➻ Edward Nawotka asks If They Need to Compete With Digital, Why Can’t Publishers Work Faster?
➻ Bradley Will of Unstrapped interviewed Bob Burg, coauthor of The Go-Giver and The Go-Giver Sells More. Burg counsels that “You're true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment." It is a decent and honest approach to sales, and if you enjoy the interview, you should definitely pick up the books.
➻ The Wall Street Journal's Hannah Karp wrote a really interesting story about the bookworms of the NBA. It turns out that the NBA players' union has a quarterly reading list, and is currently suggesting Geoffrey Colvin's excellent book, Talent is Overrated. It also turns out that Emeka Okafor has really good taste in literature.
➻ We're really looking forward to Rework, and after watching the book trailer, we think you will be, too.
➻ I'm rather ashamed that I haven't read any of the books on the shortlist of Three Percent's Best Translated Book Awards.
➻ Kent Pitman has written an interesting post at Open Salon about what has become of computer science, and winds up on Jaron Lanier's You Are Not a Gadget, saying "The book is a beautifully presented criticism of the state of society's relationship with computation, of the way in which we are trending toward having people be the dull, uninteresting, expendable, ill-paid part of a collection organism."
➻ Also at Open Salon, Karin Greenberg wrote beautifully about The Scent of Books and the smells of literature.
➻ Julien Smith thinks that "If you are taking part in this experiment, you are one of us." He said so in an inspirational post about how the web frees us up to "to become the people we were born to become." So, join the f---ing club, already, and change the world.
➻ Don't like your MacBook case, try the BookBook.
➻ Mr. Micawber pointed me to an interesting post by Stacy Mitchell about taxes and Amazon, or Why Congress Wants You to Shun Your Local Bookstore and Shop at Amazon Instead. (It was a while ago, but Micawber's has also posted the best elementary school sign ever.)
➻ I can use the fact that pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training since we last talked as an excuse to link to a wonderfully written and researched story about why Rabbit Maranville Is Not a Nazi, right?
➻ Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite is probably my favorite album of all-time. To end Black History Month, here is a performance of "Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace." The vocalist is Abbey Lincoln.
Rework
Posted Feb. 15, 2010 3:39 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
In 1999, Jason Fried was one of the founders of 37signals - then a web design firm, and now a software development company. That transition occurred when the small company found challenges in keeping track of all the project components and information. They developed an in-house software program to help keep things organized, and it worked. So well, in fact, that building those types of products became the company's focus, and the rest is history.
I did a brief Q&A with Jason in advance of the book, posted below. Even these few answers reflect the type of clarity, purpose, and down-to-earth approach that the book reveals in greater detail. Check it out, pre-order the book for your whole team, and watch what happens. It's going to be a great year.
What are some of the ways that "big" can work against a company and their ideas?
Big means too many layers. Big means an idea never happens because it needs to be approved by the whole chain of command. Big means a customer request goes to support but never gets heard by the people who actually make the product. Big means everything gets filtered by committees and lawyers so you wind up sounding like a robot instead of a human. Big means lots of documentation and planning (i.e. guessing) instead of reacting just in time.
Most importantly, big makes it hard to change. Look at the physical world. The more massive an object, the more energy is required to change its direction. It's a lot easier to turn around a speedboat than an aircraft carrier.
How is spam more than just an email issue?
Spam is a way of thinking. It's an impersonal, imprecise, inexact approach. You're merely throwing something against the wall to see if it sticks. You're harassing thousands of people hoping that a couple will respond.
Press releases are spam. Each one is a generic pitch for coverage sent out to hundreds of journalists you don't know hoping that one will write about you.
Resumés are spam when someone shotguns out hundreds at a time to potential employers. They don’t care about landing your job, they just care about landing any job.
Spam is basically a half-ass way of getting someone's attention. It's insulting, really.
A much better route: Be personal. Call someone. Or write a note. If you read a story about a similar company or product, contact the journalist who wrote it and pitch them with some passion. If you want a job, write an amazing cover letter that explains why you'd love to work there.
Don't rely on the shotgun approach of spam though. If you invest nothing in your interactions, you probably won't get much back.
If companies don't have meetings, how can they make sure to have everyone understand what the goals, ideas, and project details are?
This is assuming meetings are the only way you can communicate. If so, you need to rethink the way you do business.
We're based in Chicago but we have employees in Idaho, Canada, Spain, England, and other places too. We stay on the same page by using passive communication tools, like Campfire or Basecamp. These tools and things like email don't require an instant reply. They don't require everyone to drop what they're doing and run to the conference room. They let people respond when it’s convenient for them.
That said, an occasional meeting or phone call can be helpful. The problem comes when you rely on them for everything. Then you're just wasting the day.
How and when does productivity best happen?
When there are no interruptions. Interruptions are the enemy of productivity. The modern workplace has become an interruption factory. A meeting here, a conference call there. Before you know it you don't have a work day anymore, you have a series of fragmented work moments.
Great work requires long stretches of uninterrupted time. That's why many people get their best work done early in the morning, late at night, or on the weekends. It's the only time they aren't interrupted.
Culture might not be something that can be created, but can it be changed?
Absolutely. Culture is the by-product of consistent behavior. Change your behavior and you change your culture. Directives, announcements, declarations, missions statements - that's all crap. SAYING something doesn't change culture. The only thing that changes culture are repeated, consistent actions.
