Rework

Basecamp was in Miami last week. I sat down with Jason and David to talk about why we were there, the importance of meeting colleagues in person, and investing in culture.

It's so easy to punt on something; to say, "let's wait until we have enough information to make the perfect decision." Perfect decisions don't exist, putting things off makes them pile up, and you'll end up getting absolutely nowhere. Very few decisions are set in stone. So, make calls as quickly as possible. Don't wait around for the perfect answer.Show Notes06:33 - Disagree and commit (Wikipedia)07:37 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)15:13 - HEY World18:19 - Performance indicator (Wikipedia)18:29 - The Tyranny of Metrics - Jerry Z. Muller19:14 - Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky20:41 - Gary Vaynerchuk20:51 - What's the ROI of your mother (garyvaynerchuk.com)

It's incredibly easy to focus too much on the little details of what you're building. You can spend hours and hours on something that will rarely ship with the final product. And, details are important! But, early on is not the time to worry about them. Focus on the basics first and worry about the specifics later.Show Notes02:14 - Hill Charts (Basecamp)03:02 - Fat marker sketches (Shape Up)07:17 - On the Origin of the iPhone (Daring Fireball)10:21 - "Getting Real" design tip: Just say no to Lorem Ipsum (Signal vs Noise)12:15 - Why are we likely to continue with an investment even if it would be rational to give it up? (The Decision Lab)12:16 - Why do we value items more if they belong to us? (The Decision Lab)13:12 - Test-driven development (Wikipedia)18:31 - basecamp.com/customers

When starting something new, you can work on the stuff you could do, the stuff you want to do, and the stuff you have to do. It's the stuff you have to do is where you should begin. To find that epicenter ask yourself, "if I took this one thing away, would what I'm selling still exist."Show Notes06:07 - Highrise08:23 - Salesforce15:32 - Is Your Product a 'Vitamin' or 'Painkiller?' - Entrepreneur16:12 - The Screener

You can't do everything you want to do and do it well. You just don't have the time, resources, people, etc., so you're going to have to cut some things. But, this isn't a bad thing at all! As with any other early constraints, embrace the editing process. Your product will be better off for it!Show Notes02:08 - tilted05:56 - Jonas Downey06:31 - Ryan Singer06:33 - Matthew Linderman (Matt Ruby)08:49 - The HEY Cover Art Gallery10:50 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)15:28 - A Review Of The Minimum Viable Product Approach (Forbes)17:09 - HEY Features17:23 - The Screener19:04 - Getting Real (YouTube)21:13 - The "Building of Basecamp" Workshop (37signals)

When you're just starting off you're going to be surrounded by constraints. You probably won't have enough time to do everything you want to do. You probably don't have enough people or money either. Don't worry! These are good things! It's when you're boxed in that you're forced to make tough decisions on what to do and what not to do. This results in a clearer, more streamlined product. Embrace those constraints!Show Notes04:06 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)08:23 - Ruby on Rails11:09 - SharePoint11:12 - Microsoft Project12:55 - Backpack12:57 - Campfire13:00 - Highrise16:31 - Duke Nukem Forever (Wikipedia)17:00 - Doom (Wikipedia)18:24 - Shape Up

Businesses can get weighed down by things like excess staff, countless meetings, long-term contracts, etc. The more mass they take on the harder it is change direction. Being able to change direction, to change your mind, is essential to building a successful company.Show Notes07:20 - Newton's laws of motion (Wikipedia)20:34 - Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders - L. David Marquet (Bookshop.org)21:35 - Hire managers of one (Signal v. Noise)

A lot of people start businesses with the hope that they'll be able to sell it quickly for a huge pile of money. While this might happen sometimes, it's extremely rare and even worse, the businesses created with this goal sacrifice so much just for the chance to sell. They sacrifice their customers, their employees, their product quality... You get the idea. It's like building a house that only looks good in pictures, but you certainly wouldn't want to live in it.Show Notes03:10  - The Imbox: It's not a typo17:38 - Basecamp 3 Uptime22:04 - Mojito island is a mirage (Signal v. Noise)23:21 - Why 37signals Refocused on a Single Product: Basecamp (Inc.)23:49 - Groundhog Day (IMDb)25:52 - Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Bookshop.org)

Last episode of the year and we're talking about startups. The new dry cleaner down the street doesn't call itself a startup. The pizza place on the corner doesn't call itself a startup. They're new businesses, that's all! So, what's so special about your tech company that you need a fancy word for it? Startups make you think of unlimited growth, huge investments, no expenses to worry about. This mindset can be unhealthy and detrimental to your new business.Show Notes02:57 - Request for Proposal (Investopedia)10:02 - Greater fool theory (Wikipedia)15:57 - R.I.P. Good Times (Sequoia Capital)23:00 - Hotwire

Before you start your great new business you'll NEED to hire some people, raise some money, rent an office, buy some ads, etc. etc. OF COURSE YOU DON'T. These are all just the trappings entrepreneurs tell themselves they need, when in reality, all you need is to start making something.Show Notes00:03 - Budweiser Wassup Commercial (YouTube)01:28 - Dungeons & Dragons05:34 - Coudal Partners07:36 - Minimum Viable Product (Wikipedia)09:00 - Gumroad09:03 - Stripe09:22 - Squarespace09:24 - Mailchimp17:33 - Basecamp Merch23:07 - Fingerspitzengefühl (Wikipedia)

Taking outside money to start your business may seem like a good idea, but there are a ton of strings attached... You give up control. Cashing out becomes the #1 priority. It's addictive. It's usually a bad deal. Customers become less important than investors... You get the idea. Outside money should never be plan A.Show Notes03:15 - How WhatsApp Makes Money (Investopedia)13:28 - 37signals changing name to Basecamp, shedding products (Chicago Tribune)22:40 - The deal Jeff Bezos got on Basecamp (Signal v. Noise)

Last episode we discussed how important it is to stand for something and you'd think writing your values down in a mission statement would be a great way to let people know exactly what you stand for. Well, you'd be wrong. Mission statements are almost always vapid, boring, platitudes that end up saying nothing at all. Even worse, they often turn people away entirely!Show Notes00:11 - Lex Fridman (YouTube)02:38 - The Soup Nazi - Seinfeld (Wikipedia)04:18 - 37signals manifesto05:08 - 1981 FedEx commercial (YouTube)05:17 - About Us (FedEx)05:45 - Values (Basecamp Employee Handbook)10:04 - Elevator pitch (Wikipedia)12:17 - About Us (Enterprise)15:41 - Nudge Nudge Wink Wink - Monty Python (YouTube)19:56 - What's the point of a Reservation - Seinfeld (YouTube)

Whenever you start something, especially a business it's important to know why you're doing what you're doing. Having strong opinions, standing for something, can help tremendously when it comes to making crucial decisions and creating super-fans.Show Notes03:27 - Embrace Constraints (Getting Real)04:09 - Signal v. Noise04:18 - It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work04:44 - Signal v. Noise is closed.08:24 - Citizens United v. FEC (Wikipedia)09:31 - Oracle11:07 - Pinkberry11:35 - Pinkberry sold to Cold Stone owner (CNBC)12:38 - Basecamp Launches (Signal v. Noise)14:38 - r/faxmachines (reddit)22:07 - Badass: Making Users Awesome - Kathy Sierra (Bookshop.org)25:53 - Tesla Model S Plaid

"There're just not enough hours in the day!" This is probably the most common excuse people give for not starting something. Well, guess what. There most definitely are a few hours you could probably squeeze in here and there. And, we're not saying you have to quit your day job to do it!Show Notes02:10 - Fortnite02:21 - Tetris Effect07:57 - Set Boundaries (Shape Up)09:37 - Jerry Maguire "Who's Coming With Me?" (YouTube)15:13 - How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation - Anne Helen Peterson (BuzzFeed News)19:40 - Gary Vaynerchuk23:43 - Stripe

This week Jason and David discuss the essay titled "Start Making Something." It's only when you start building something the real insights come. Until then, all you have is just an idea. We also talk about Stanley Kubrick films and Jason introduces groundbreaking concepts like perforated pizza and "The Mysterious Cat."Show Notes06:04 - Getting Real17:22 - Collections20:44 - Stanley Kubrick (IMDb)20:57 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (IMDb)21:10 - Music Box Theater22:10 - The Shining (IMDb)22:24 - The reason why Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick film 'The Shining' (Far Out)

Basecamp was originally designed as a way to manage 37signals' client work and its success can be credited to the fact that it was designed to scratch a very specific itch by the people with that were itching. Now, we're not saying that building something for others is necessarily a bad way to go about things, but building for your own needs has huge advantages.Show Notes 06:15 - "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products." - Steve Jobs in Triumph of the Nerds (PBS)12:53 - Hotwire13:57 - Not invented here (Wikipedia)14:26 - Mary Kay Ash (Wikipedia)18:12 - Second-system effect (Wikipedia)21:35 - Minimum viable product (Wikipedia)21:42 - Making sense of MVP - Henrik Kniberg23:55 - The Homer (Simpsons Wiki)

This week we discuss the importance of doing meaningful work. At least meaningful to you. What you do is your legacy, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to change the world. You just need to be doing something that changes YOUR world.Show Notes03:28 - Bullshit Jobs: A Theory - David Graeber (Bookshop.org)04:37 - Drudge Report04:38 - craigslist05:01 - Flip Video (Wikipedia)05:29 - iPod touch07:46 - Rails08:55 - Ta-da List11:45 - Stoicism (Wikipedia)13:47 - Aol.16:44 - stripe17:31 - Braintree18:07 - shopify19:01 - Paul Graham19:36 - Viaweb (Wikipedia)20:34 - Squarespace21:21 - Stratechery

"Entrepreneur" sounds really fancy. Like a member of some exclusive club. But, what we're really talking about is just someone who starts something. Is it time to retire this word? Is there a better word to replace it? Can a business podcast go 30 minutes without talking about Steve Jobs, luxury cars, and watches?Show Notes09:42 - Andon (Wikipedia)11:23 - Nürburgring 24 Hours (Wikipedia)17:14 - The E Myth Revisited - Micahael E. Gerber (Bookshop.org)20:51 - Monolith Titan Conical Espresso Grinder23:19 - Saddleback Leather23:34 - How to Knock Off a Saddleback Leather Co. Briefcase (YouTube)

Working long hours, putting in overtime, logging on on the weekends, have become badges of honor, but there's a big difference between work and getting stuff done. This week Jason and David push back against this idea of workaholism.Show Notes01:37 - Six-week cycles (Shape Up)02:46 - On Apple's monopoly power to destroy HEY (Signal v. Noise)09:10 - Oura Ring10:47 - Test-driven development (Wikipedia)12:50 - An Inside Look at Google's Best Employee Perks (Inc.)17:12 - Paid Time Off (Basecamp Employee Handbook)24:19 - Summer Hours (Basecamp Employee Handbook)

Basecamp has always prided itself on staying small and lean. But, with two major products, we're going to change that. The question when looking to grow, however, is "why?"Show Notes03:08 - Highrise03:09 - Campfire03:10 - Backpack07:18 - Software as a service (SaaS)09:41 - Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency - Tom DeMarco13:33 - Hill Charts14:23 - Ryan Singer17:52 - Citizen Kane18:15 - "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." - Edward Abbey