Thread by @grahamkmann

It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by @dhh and @jasonfried was one of the best books about work I read this year.

Here are 40+ takeaways 👇

Meetings should be a last resort.

The default for communication at work should be: asynchronous first, real-time second.

View your company as a product.

Where are the bugs? What's fast? What's slow? Do people understand how it works?

Entrepreneurship is mostly boring.

It's more of "laying bricks and applying another layer of paint."

"Comparison is the death of joy."—Mark Twain

Goals are mostly fake.

Made-up numbers for the sake of hitting a target.

Avoid them.

Stick to planning in the short term.

It gives you the option of changing your mind.

Guard your time and attention ruthlessly.

Aim to deploy it in focused, large chunks of 3-4 hours.

Remove anything that prevents you from doing this.

Focus on effectiveness, not productivity.

How little can you do? How much can you cut out?

Notice where you get the most work done: places like planes and trains.

Places with no interruptions or distractions.

Add friction to booking meets and finding a time in the calendar.

More friction = less meetings.

Write monthly summaries of the work you've done and the progress you've been made.

Use them to share with others the key points, and keep everyone informed.

(at Basecamp they're called "Heartbeats")

It matters what you do, not what you say.

If you're a boss or manager and working all hours, you can't expect your reports to.

As a boss or manager, ask the tough questions.

Things like:
- "What's something nobody dares talk about?"
- "What are you afraid of at work?"

Declaring that an unfamiliar task will be easy is almost always an admission that you have little knowledge of what you are about to do.

Things are almost always harder and more time-consuming than you think at this point.

Most work is a grind of small things that add up to one big thing over time.

Don't trade sleep for anything.

Focus on people and their work, not resumes or CVs.

The quickest way to disappointment is to set unreasonable expectations.

Every new employee will have a ramp-up period, regardless of where they worked or what they did before.

Cultivate people with high potential instead of fighting for talent.

It's more rewarding and pays off more in the long run.

Treat your office like a library.

Don't disturb people at their desk, and keep conversation volume low.

"Following group chat at work is like being in an all-day meeting with random participants and no agenda."

When it comes to chat, we have two primary rules of thumb: "Real-time sometimes, asynchronous most of the time" and "If it’s important, slow down."

Keep deadlines firm, but reduce the scope of the work to reach them.

Focus on building things to fit the need and the time allotted to them, rather than sticking with a specific product spec.

Don't react.

Carefully consider presentations and proposals.

Carefully draft a reply.

A great way to do this is to make proposals written, and replies and feedback asynchronous.

Build good habits now.

There is no "later" to sacrifice for.

Disagree, but commit.

Just make sure to explain the decision before you move forward.

Doing nothing is always an option.

And it always should be.

The only way to do less is to have less to do.

Say no. Reduce your work to only the essential.

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."—Peter Drucker

Teams of three—two developers and a designer—are the most productive.

Take risks, but don't risk ruin.

Smart bets are the ones where you can play again if you lose.

"Becoming a calm company is all about making decisions about who you are, who you want to serve, and who you want to say no to."

Let the market teach you.

Launch and learn.

"Promises pile up like debt, and they accrue interest, too. The longer you wait to fulfill them, the more they cost to pay off and the worse the regret."

"Sell new customers on the new thing and let old customers keep whatever they already have."

When you deal with someone, you can react two ways: "It's no big deal" or "It's the end of the world."

Whichever you choose, they will choose the other.

(from Jean-Louis Gassee, former head of Apple France)

If you don't have power to change things at a company level, change them at your local level.

Change how you interact, how you protect your time, when you say no, and your expectations.

Choose calm.

If you'd like to see more detailed notes, you can find them here!

grahammann.net/book-notes/it-…